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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/aboutcatherineOObalziala 


THE  WORKS  or 

HONOREDE  BALZAC 


About  Catherine  tic  Medici 

{Sur  Catherine  de  Midkis) 

AAA 

GAMBARA 


/// 

"Treason,  Madame!  ...  Be  sure  that  this  fel- 
low does  not  escape  !" 

(About  Catherine  de  Medici,  page  ijf) 

TRANSLATED   BY  CLARA  BELL 
WITH    AN    INTRODUCTION    BY    GEORGE    SAINTSBURY 


FRl) 

PUBLISHERS  ti^m  VORK 


THE  WORKS  or 

HONOREDEBALZAC 


About  Catherine  de  Medici 

(Sur  Catherine  de  Medicis) 

AND 

GAMBARA 


/// 


TRANSLATED   BY  CLARA  BELL 
WITH    AN    INTRODUCTION    BY    GEORGE    SAINTSBURY 


FRED    DeFAU  &  COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS  NEW  YORK 


This  Edition  Limited  to  1000  Copies 

8  jub 


No. 


Copyrighted  1901 

BY 

JOHN  D.  AVIL 


/]i!  Rights  Reserved 


CoITego 
lAhvary 

VQ 


CONTENTS 


PAOB 

INTRODUCTION         -  -  .  -        ix 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI: 

PRBFACK            -----  3 

PART       I.   THE  CAI,VINIST   MARTYR                -  44 

'•       II.  the;  ruggieri's  secret           -  233 

"         III.    THE  TWO  DREAMS               -               -  308 

GAMBARA        -          •          •          .          -  ja? 


1053073 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PHOTOGRAVURBS 

*' TREASON,  MADAME!  BE  SURE  THAT 
THIS  FEI,I.OW  DOES  NOT  ESCAPE!" 
(131)       -----      Froniispiece 

PAOB 

CHRISTOPHE  IN  PRISON      -  -  -  -      I63 

I^RENZO  RUGGIERI  ....     290 

COUNT  ANDREA  MARCOSINZ  -  «  -     328 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

AND 

GAMBARA 


INTRODUCTION 

This  book  (as  to  which  it  is  important  to  remember  the  Sur\ 
if  injustice  is  not  to  be  done  to  the  intentions  of  the  author)^ 
has  plenty  of  interest  of  more  kinds  than  one ;  but  it  is  per- 
haps more  interesting  because  of  the  place  it  holds  in  Bal- 
zac's work  than  for  itself.  He  had  always  considerable 
hankerings  after  the  historical  novel:  his  early  and  lifelong 
devotion  to  Scott  would  sufficiently  account  for  that.  More 
than  one  of  the  (Euvres  de  Jeunesse  attempts  the  form  in  a 
more  or  less  conscious  way :  the  Chouans,  the  first  successful 
book,  definitely  attempts  it;  but  by  far  the  most  ambitious 
attempt  is  to  be  found  in  the  book  before  us.  It  is  most 
probable  that  it  was  of  this,  if  of  anything  of  his  own,  that 
Balzac  was  thinking  when,  in  1846,  he  wrote  disdainfully  to 
Madame  Hanska  about  Dumas,  and  expressed  himself  to- 
wards Les  Trois  Mousquetaires  (which  had  whiled  him 
through  a  day  of  cold  and  inability  to  work)  nearly  as  un- 
gratefully as  Carlyle  did  towards  Captain  Marryat.  And 
though  it  is,  let  it  be  repeated,  a  mistake,  and  a  rather  un- 
fair mistake,  to  give  such  a  title  to  the  book  as  might  induce 
readers  to  regard  it  as  a  single  and  definite  novel,  of  which 
Catherine  is  the  heroine,  though  it  is  made  up  of  three  parts 
written  at  very  different  times,  it  has  a  unity  which  the  in- 
troduction shows  to  some  extent,  and  which  a  rejected  preface' 
given  by  M.  de  Lovenjoul  shows  still  better. 

To   understand    this,    we    must    remember    that    Balaac, 
though  not  exactly  an  historical  scholar,  was  a  considerable 


\ 


X  INTRODUCTION 

student  of  history;  and  that,  although  rather  an  amateur 
politician,  he  was  a  constant  thinker  and  writer  on  political 
subjects.  We  must  add  to  these  remembrances  the  fact  of 
his  intense  interest  in  all  such  matters  as  Alchemy,  the  Elixir 
of  Life,  and  so  forth,  to  which  the  sixteenth  century  in 
general,  and  Catherine  de'  Medici  in  particular,  were  known 
to  be  devoted.  All  these  interests  of  his  met  in  the  present 
book,  the  parts  of  which  appeared  in  inverse  order,  and  the 
genesis  of  which  is  important  enough  to  make  it  desirable 
to  incorporate  some  of  the  usual  bibliographical  matter  in 
the  substance  of  this  preface.  The  third  and  shortest,  Les 
Deux  Reves,  a  piece  partly  suggestive  of  the  famous  Prophecy 
of  Cazotte  and  other  legends  of  the  Eevolution  (but  with 
more  retrospective  than  prospective  view),  is  dated  as  early 
as  1828  (before  the  turning-point),  and  was  actually  pub- 
lished in  a  periodical  in  1830.  La  Confidence  des  Ruggieri, 
written  in  1836  (and,  as  I  have  noted  in  the  general  intro- 
duction, according  to  its  author,  in  a  single  night)  followed, 
and  Le  Martyr  Calviniste,  which  had  several  titles,  and  was 
advertised  as  in  preparation  for  a  long  time,  did  not  come 
till  1841. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  all  are  interesting.  The  per- 
sonages, both  imaginary  and  historical,  appear  at  times  in 
a  manner  worthy  of  Balzac;  many  separate  scenes  are  ex- 
cellent; and,  to  those  who  care  to  perceive  them,  the  various 
occupations  of  the  author  appear  in  the  most  interesting 
manner.  Politically,  his  object  was,  at  least  by  his  own  ac- 
count, to  defend  the  maxim  that  private  and  public  morality 
are  different;  that  the  policy  of  a  state  cannot  be,  and  ought 
not  to  be,  governed  by  the  same  considerations  of  duty  to  its 
neighbors  as  those  which  ought  to  govern  the  conduct  of  an 
individual.     The  very  best  men — those  least  liable  to  the 


INTRODUCTION  xl 

slightest  imputation  of  corrupt  morals  and  motives — ^have 
endorsed  this  principle;  though  it  has  been  screamed  at  by 
a  few  fanatics,  a  somewhat  larger  number  of  persons  who 
found  their  account  in  so  doing,  and  a  great  multitude  of 
hasty,  dense,  or  foolish  folk.  But  it  was  something  of  a  mark 
of  that  amateurishness  which  spoilt  Balzac's  dealing  with  the 
subject  to  choose  the  sixteenth  century  for  his  text.  For 
every  cool-headed  student  of  history  and  ethics  will  admit 
that  it  was  precisely  the  abuse  of  this  principle  at  this  time, 
and  by  persons  of  whom  Catherine  de'  Medici,  if  not  the 
most  blamable,  has  had  the  most  blame  put  on  her,  that 
brought  the  principle  itself  into  discredit.  Between  the  as- 
sertion that  the  strictest  morality  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
must  obtain  between  nation  and  nation,  between  governor 
and  governed,  and  the  maxim  that  in  politics  the  end  of  public 
safety  justifies  any  means  whatever,  there  is  a  perfectly  im- 
mense gulf  fixed. 

If,  however,  we  turn  from  this  somewhat  academic  point, 
and  do  not  dwell  very  much  on  the  occult  and  magical  sides 
of  the  matter,  interesting  as  they  are,  we  shall  be  brought 
at  once  face  to  face  with  the  question.  Is  the  handling  of 
this  book  the  right  and  proper  one  for  an  historical  novel? 
Can  we  in  virtue  of  it  rank  Balzac  (this  is  the  test  which 
he  would  himself,  beyond  all  question,  have  accepted)  a  long 
way  above  Dumas  and  near  Scott  ? 

I  must  say  that  I  can  see  no  possibility  of  answer  except, 
''Certainly  not."  For  the  historical  novel  depends  almost 
more  than  any  other  division  of  the  kind  upon  interest  of 
itory.  Interest  of  story  is  not,  as  has  been  several  times 
pointed  out,  at  any  time  Balzac's  main  appeal,  and  he  has 
succeeded  in  it  here  less  than  in  most  other  places.  He  has 
discussed  too  much;  he  has  brought  in  too  many  personages 


xll  INTRODUCTION 

without  sufficient  interest  of  plot;  but,  above  all,  he  exhibita 
throughout  an  incapacity  to  handle  his  materials  in  the  pe- 
culiar way  required.  How  long  he  was  before  he  grasped 
"the  way  to  do  it,"  even  on  his  own  special  lines,  is  the  com- 
monplace and  refrain  of  all  writing  about  him.  Now,  to  this 
special  kind  he  gave  comparatively  little  attention,  and  the 
result  is  that  he  mastered  it  less  than  any  other.  In  the  best 
stories  of  Dumas  (and  the  best  number  some  fifteen  or  twenty 
at  least)  the  interest  of  narrative,  of  adventure,  of  what  will 
happen  to  the  personages,  takes  you  by  the  throat  at  once, 
and  never  lets  you  go  till  the  end.  There  is  little  or  nothing 
of  this  sort  here.  The  three  stories  are  excellently  well-in- 
formed studies,  very  curious  and  interesting  in  divers  ways. 
The  Ruggieri  is  perhaps  something  more;  but  it  is,  as  its 
author  no  doubt  honestly  entitled  it,  much  more  an  Etude 
Philosophique  than  an  historical  novelette.  In  short,  this 
was  not  Balzac's  way.  We  need  not  be  sorry — it  is  very 
rarely  necessary  to  be  that — that  he  tried  it;  we  may  easily 
forgive  him  for  not  recognizing  the  ease  and  certainty  with 
which  Dumas  trod  the  path.  But  we  should  be  most  of  all 
thankful  that  he  did  not  himself  enter  it  frequently,  or  ever 
pursue  it  far. 

The  most  important  part  of  the  bibliography  of  the  book 
has  been  given  above.  The  rest  is  a  little  complicated,  and 
for  its  ins  and  outs  reference  must  be  made  to  the  usual  au- 
thority. It  should  be  enough  to  say  that  the  Martyr,  under 
the  title  of  Les  Lecamus,  first  appeared  in  the  Siecle  during 
the  spring  of  1841.  Souverain  published  it  as  a  book  two 
years  later  with  the  other  two,  as  Catherine  de  Medicis  Ex- 
pliquee.  The  second  part,  entitled,  not  La  Confidence,  but 
Le  Secret  des  Ruggieri,  had  appeared  much  earlier  in  the 
Ckronique  de  Paris  during  the  winter  of  1836-37,  and  had 


INTRODUCTION  xlll 

been  published  as  a  book  in  the  latter  year;  it  was  joined  to 
Catherine  de  Medicis  Expliquee  as  above.  The  third  part, 
after  appearing  in  the  Monde  as  early  as  May  1830,  also  ap- 
peared in  the  Deux  Mondes  for  December  of  the  same  year, 
then  became  one  of  the  Romans  et  Contes  Philosophiques, 
then  an  Etude  Philosophique,  and  in  1843  joined  Catherine 
de  Medicis  Expliquee.  The  whole  was  inserted  in  the 
Comedie  in  1846.  G.  S. 


Oamhara  exhibits  a  curious  and,  it  must  be  admitted,  a 
somewhat  incoherent  mixture  of  two  of  Balzac's  chief  out- 
side interests — Italy  and  music.  In  his  helter-skelter  ram- 
blings,  indulged  in  despite  his  enormous  literary  labors,  he 
took  many  a  peep  at  Italy ;  and  it  is  evident  that  for  him  the 
country  exercised  a  powerful  fascination.  In  his  eyes  it  was 
ideal — ideal  in  its  music,  in  its  painting,  and  in  those  who 
fanned  the  fires  divine.  His  affection  for  Italy  was,  in  fact, 
about  as  ardent  and  untutored  as  that  for  the  arts.  The 
story  of  Oamhara  is  an  illustration  of  these  two  sentiments; 
it  can  best  be  understood  when  the  author's  attitude  is 
known. 

There  is  a  little  about  the  forceful  character  of  Andrea 
Marcosini  that  reminds  one  of  de  Marsay.  He  has  an  inherent 
nobleness  unknown  to  the  latter,  but  unfortunately  made  sub- 
servient to  a  banality  which  even  the  genius  of  Balzac  can- 
not efface.  This  marring  clause  of  the  Count  and  Marianna 
is  hardly  to  be  excused  on  the  ground  of  dramatic  necessity, 
since  other  themes  of  this  nature  are  not  cloyed  by  baser 
earth.  The  introductory  scene  in  the  restaurant  is  good,  and 
stands  out  brightly  contrasted  with  Gambara's  music-ravings 
and  the  faint  echo  of  Giardini's  cookery  conceits.     Each  is 


xlv  INTRODUCTION 

but  the  quest  of  something  unattained — a  note  more  grandly 
uttered  in  La  Peau  de  Chagrin,  or  La  Recherche  de  VAhsolu, 
or  the  wonderful  sketch,  Le  Chef  d'CEuvre  Inconnu.  But  as 
a  fresh  embodiment  of  this  thought,  Oamhara  may  be  wel- 
comed, for  in  such  themes  as  these  the  novelist  is  most  dis- 
tinctly in  his  element. 

The  first  appearance  of  Oarnbara  was  in  the  Revue  et  Ga- 
zette Musicale  de  Paris  during  July  and  August  1837,  in  four 
chapters  and  a  conclusion.  In  1839  it  was  included  in  a  book 
with  the  Cabinet  des  Ajitiques.  Ten  years  later  it  was  included 
as  Le  Livre  des  Douleurs  with  Seraphita,  Les  Proscrits,  and 
Massimilla  Doni.    It  took  its  place  in  the  Comedie  in  1846. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

To  Monsieur  le  Marquis  de  Pastoret, 
Member  of  the  Academie  des  Beav^-Arts. 

When  we  consider  the  amazing  number  of  volumes  written 
to  ascertain  the  spot  where  Hannibal  crossed  the  Alps,  without 
our  knowing  to  this  day  whether  it  was,  as  Whitaker  and  Rivaz 
say,  by  Lyons,  Geneva,  the  Saint-Bernard,  and  the  Valley  of 
Aosta;  or,  as  we  are  told  by  Letronne,  FoUard,  Saint-Simon,  and 
Fortia  d' Urban,  by  the  Is6re,  Grenoble,  Saint-Bonnet,  Mont 
Gen6vre,  Fenestrella,  and  the  Pass  of  Susa,  or,  according  to 
Larauza,  by  the  Mont  Cenis  and  Susa;  or,  as  Strabo,  Poly  bins 
and  de  Luc  tell  us,  by  the  Rh6ne,  Vienne,  Yenne,  and  the  Mont 
du  Chat;  or,  as  certain  clever  people  opine,  by  Genoa,  la 
Bochetta,  and  la  Scrivia — the  view  I  hold,  and  which  Napoleon 
had  adopted — to  say  nothing  of  the  vinegar  with  which  some 
learned  men  have  dressed  the  Alpine  rocks,  can  we  wonder.  Mon- 
sieur le  Marquis,  to  find  modern  history  so  much  neglected  that 
some  most  important  points  remain  obscure,  and  that  the  most 
odious  calumnies  still  weigh  on  names  which  ought  to  be  re- 
vered?— And  it  may  be  noted  incidentally  that  by  dint  of  ex- 
planations it  has  become  problematical  whether  Hannibal  ever 
crossed  the  Alps  at  all.  Father  Menestrier  believes  that  the 
Scoras  spoken  of  by  Polybius  was  the  Sa5me;  Letronne,  Larauza, 
and  Schweighauser  believe  it  to  be  the  Is6re;  Gochard,  a  learned 
man  of  Lyons,  identifies  it  with  the  DrSme.  But  to  any  one  who 
has  eyes,  are  there  not  striking  geographical  and  linguistic  af- 
finities between  Scoras  and  Scrivia,  to  say  nothing  of  the  almost 


2  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

certain  fact  that  the  Carthaginian  fleet  lay  at  la  Spezzia  or  in 
the  Gulf  of  Genoa? 

I  could  understand  all  this  patient  research  if  the  battle  of 
Cannae  could  be  doubted;  but  since  its  consequences  are  well 
known,  what  is  the  use  of  blackening  so  much  paper  with 
theories  that  are  but  the  Arabesque  of  hypothesis,  so  to  speak; 
while  the  most  important  history  of  later  times,  that  of  the 
Reformation,  is  so  full  of  obscurities  that  the  name  remains  un- 
known of  the  man*  who  was  making  a  boat  move  by  steam  at 
Barcelona  at  the  time  when  Luther  and  Calvin  were  inventing 
the  revolt  of  mind? 

We,  I  believe,  after  having  made,  each  in  his  own  way,  the 
same  investigation  as  to  the  great  and  noble  character  of 
Catherine  de'  Medici,  have  come  to  the  same  opinion.  So  I 
thought  that  my  historical  studies  on  the  subject  might  be  suit- 
ably dedicated  to  a  writer  who  has  labored  so  long  on  the  his- 
tory of  the  Reformation;  and  that  I  should  thus  do  public 
homage,  precious  perhaps  for  its  rarity,  to  the  character  and 
fidelity  of  a  man  true  to  the  Monarchy. 

Pasis,  JanvMry  1842. 

*The  inventor  of  this  experiment  was  probably  Salomon  of  Cauz,  not  of  CauB. 
This  great  man  was  always  unlucky  ;  after  his  death  even  his  name  was  misspelt. 
Salomon,  whose  original  jwrtrait,  at  the  age  of  forty-six,  was  discovered  by  the 
author  of  the  flwman  Comedy,  was  bom  at  Caux,  in  Normandy. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 


PREFACE 

When  men  of  learning  are  struck  by  a  historical  blunder, 
and  try  to  correct  it,  "Paradox !"  is  generally  the  cry ;  but  to 
those  who  thoroughly  examine  the  history  of  modem  times, 
it  is  evident  that  historians  are  privileged  liars,  who  lend  their 
pen  to  popular  beliefs,  exactly  as  most  of  the  newspapers  of 
the  day  express  nothing  but  the  opinions  of  their  readers. 

Historical  independence  of  thought  has  been  far  less  con- 
spicuous among  lay  writers  than  among  the  priesthood.  The 
purest  light  thrown  on  history  has  come  from  the  Benedic- 
tines, one  of  the  glories  of  France — so  long,  that  is  to  say,  as 
the  interests  of  the  monastic  orders  are  not  in  question. 
Since  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  some  great  and 
learned  controversialists  have  arisen  who,  struck  by  the  need 
for  rectifying  certain  popular  errors  to  which  historians  have 
lent  credit,  have  published  some  remarkable  works.  Thus  Mon- 
sieur Launoy,  nicknamed  the  Evicter  of  Saints,  made  ruth- 
less war  on  certain  saints  who  have  sneaked  into  the  Church 
Calendar.  Thus  the  rivals  of  the  Benedictines,  the  two  little 
known  members  of  the  Academie  des  Inscriptions  et  Belles- 
lettres,  began  their  memoires,  their  studious  notes,  full  of 
patience,  erudition,  and  logic,  on  certain  obscure  passages 
of  history.  Thus  Voltaire,  with  an  unfortunate  bias,  and 
sadly  perverted  passions,  often  brought  the  light  of  his  in- 
tellect to  bear  on  historical  prejudices.  Diderot,  with  this 
end  in  view,  began  a  book — much  too  long — on  a  period  of 
the  history  of  Imperial  Rome.  But  for  the  French  Eevolu- 
tion,  criticism,  as  applied  to  history,  might  perhaps  have 
laid  up  the  materials  for  a  good  and  true  history  of  France, 
for  which  evidence  had  long  been  amassed  by  the  great  French 
Benedictines.     Louis  XVI.,  a  man  of  clear  mind,  himself 


4  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

translated  the  English  work,  which  so  much  agitated  the 
last  century,  in  which  Walpole  tried  to  explain  the  career  of 
Eichard  III. 

How  is  it  that  persons  so  famous  as  kings  and  queens,  so 
important  as  generals  of  great  armies,  become  objects  of 
aversion  or  derision?  Half  the  world  hesitates  between  the 
song  on  Marlborough  and  the  history  of  England,  as  they 
do  between  popular  tradition  and  history  as  concerning 
Charles  IX. 

At  all  periods  when  great  battles  are  fought  between  the 
masses  and  the  authorities,  the  populace  creates  an  ogresque 
figure — to  coin  a  word  for  the  sake  of  its  exactitude.  Thus 
in  our  own  time,  but  for  the  Memorials  of  Saint-Helena, 
and  the  controversies  of  Koyalists  and  Bonapartists,  there 
was  scarcely  a  chance  but  that  Napoleon  would  have  been  mis- 
understood. Another  Abbe  de  Pradt  or  two,  a  few  more 
newspaper  articles,  and  Napoleon  from  an  Emperor  would 
have  become  an  Ogre. 

How  is  error  propagated  and  accredited?  The  mystery 
is  accomplished  under  our  eyes  without  our  discerning  the 
process.  No  one  suspects  how  greatly  printing  has  helped 
to  give  body  both  to  the  envy  which  attends  persons  in  high 
places,  and  to  the  popular  irony  which  sums  up  the  converse 
view  of  every  great  historical  fact.  For  instance,  every  bad 
horse  in  France  that  needs  flogging  is  called  after  the  Prince 
de  Polignac;  and  so  who  knows  what  opinion  the  future  may 
hold  as  to  the  Prince  de  Polignac's  coup  d'Etatf  In  conse- 
quence of  a  caprice  of  Shakespeare's — a  stroke  of  revenge 
perhaps,  like  that  of  Beaumarchais  on  Bergasse  (Begearss) — 
Falstaff,  in  England,  is  a  type  of  the  grotesque;  his  name 
raises  a  laugh,  he  is  the  King  of  Buffoons.  Now,  instead  of 
being  enormously  fat,  ridiculously  amorous,  vain,  old, 
drunken,  and  a  corrupter  of  youth,  FalstaflP  was  one  of  the 
most  important  figures  of  his  time,  a  Knight  of  the  Garter, 
holding  high  command.  At  the  date  of  Henry  V.'s  accession, 
Falstaff  was  at  most  four-and-thirty.  This  General,  who  dis- 
tinguished himself  at  the  battle  of  Agincourt,  where  he  took 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  5 

the  Due  d'Alengon  prisoner,  in  1420  took  the  town  of  Monte- 
reau,  which  was  stoutly  defended.  Finally,  under  Henry  VI., 
he  beat  ten  thousand  Frenchmen  with  fifteen  hundred  men 
who  were  dropping  with  fatigue  and  hunger.  So  much  for 
valor ! 

If  we  turn  to  literature,  Eabelais,  among  the  French,  a 
sober  man  who  drank  nothing  but  water,  is  thought  of  as 
a  lover  of  good  cheer  and  a  persistent  sot.  Hundreds  of  ab- 
surd stories  have  been  coined  concerning  the  author  of  one 
of  the  finest  books  in  French  literature,  Pantagruel. 

Aretino,  Titian's  friend,  and  the  Voltaire  of  his  day,  is 
now  credited  with  a  reputation,  in  complete  antagonism  with 
his  works  and  character,  which  he  acquired  by  his  over  free 
wit,  characteristic  of  the  writings  of  an  age  when  gross  jests 
were  held  in  honor,  and  queens  and  cardinals  indited  tales 
which  are  now  considered  licentious.  Instances  might  be 
infinitely  multiplied. 

In  France,  and  at  the  most  important  period  of  our  his- 
tory, Catherine  de'  Medici  has  suffered  more  from  popular 
error  than  any  other  woman,  unless  it  be  Brunehaut  or  Frede- 
gonde ;  while  Marie  de'  Medici,  whose  every  action  was  preju- 
dicial to  France,  has  escaped  the  disgrace  that  should  cover 
her  name.  Marie  dissipated  the  treasure  amassed  by  Henri 
IV. ;  she  never  purged  herself  of  the  suspicion  that  she  was 
cognizant  of  his  murder;  Epernon,  who  had  long  known 
Kavaillac,  and  who  did  not  parry  his  blow,  was  intimate  with 
the  Queen ;  she  compelled  her  son  to  banish  her  from  France, 
where  she  was  fostering  the  rebellion  of  her  other  son,  Gas- 
ton; and  Richelieu's  triumph  over  her  on  the  Journee  des 
Dupes  was  due  solely  to  the  Cardinal's  revealing  to  Louis 
XIII.  certain  documents  secreted  after  the  death  of 
Henri  IV. 

Catherine  de'  Medici,  on  the  contrary,  saved  the  throne 
of  France,  she  maintained  the  Royal  authority  under  circum- 
stances to  which  more  than  one  great  prince  would  have  suc- 
cumbed. Face  to  face  with  such  leaders  of  the  factions  and 
ambitions  of  the  houses  of  Guise  and  of  Bourbon  as  the  two 


6  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

Cardinals  de  Lorraine  and  the  two  "Balafres,"  the  two 
Princes  de  Conde,  Queen  Jeanne  d'Albret,  Henri  IV.,  the 
Connetable  de  Montmorency,  Calvin,  the  Colignys,  and  Theo- 
dore de  Beze,  she  was  forced  to  put  forth  the  rarest  fine  quali- 
ties, the  most  essential  gifts  of  statesmanship,  under  the  fire 
of  the  Calvinist  press.  These,  at  any  rate,  are  indisputable 
facts.  And  to  the  student  who  digs  deep  into  the  history  of 
the  sixteenth  century  in  France,  the  figure  of  Catherine  de' 
Medici  stands  out  as  that  of  a  great  king. 

When  once  calumnies  are  undermined  by  facts  laboriously 
brought  to  light  from  under  the  contradictions  of  pamphlets 
and  false  anecdotes,  everything  is  explained  to  the  glory  of 
this  wonderful  woman,  who  had  none  of  the  weakness  of  her 
sex,  who  lived  chaste  in  the  midst  of  the  gallantries  of  the 
most  licentious  Court  in  Europe,  and  who,  notwithstanding 
her  lack  of  money,  erected  noble  buildings,  as  if  to  make 
good  the  losses  caused  by  the  destructive  Calvinists,  who  in- 
jured Art  as  deeply  as  they  did  the  body  politic. 

Hemmed  in  between  a  race  of  princes  who  proclaimed 
themselves  the  heirs  of  Charlemagne,  and  a  factious  younger 
branch  that  was  eager  to  bury  the  Connetable  de  Bourbon's 
treason  under  the  throne ;  obliged,  too,  to  fight  down  a  heresy 
on  the  verge  of  devouring  the  Monarchy,  without  friends, 
and  aware  of  treachery  in  the  chiefs  of  the  Catholic  party 
and  of  republicanism  in  the  Calvinists,  Catherine  used  the 
most  dangerous  but  the  surest  of  political  weapons — Craft.  She 
determined  to  deceive  by  turns  the  party  that  was  anxious 
to  secure  the  downfall  of  the  House  of  Valois,  the  Bourbons 
who  aimed  at  the  Crown,  and  the  Reformers — the  Radicals 
of  that  day,  who  dreamed  of  an  impossible  republic,  like  those 
of  our  own  day,  who,  however,  have  nothing  to  reform.  In- 
deed, so  long  as  she  lived,  the  Valois  sat  on  the  throne.  The 
great  de  Thou  understood  the  worth  of  this  woman  when  he 
exclaimed,  on  hearing  of  her  death: 

"It  is  not  a  woman,  it  is  Royalty  that  dies  in  her  !'* 

Catherine  had,  in  fact,  the  sense  of  Royalty  in  the  highest 
degree,  and  she  defended  it  with  admirable  courage  and  per- 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  7 

sistency.  The  reproaches  flung  at  her  by  Calvinist  writers 
are  indeed  her  glory ;  she  earned  them  solely  by  her  triumphs. 
And  how  was  she  to  triumph  but  by  cunning  ?  Here  lies  the 
whole  question. 

As  to  violence — that  method  bears  on  one  of  the  most 
hotly  disputed  points  of  policy,  which,  in  recent  days,  has 
been  answered  here,  on  the  spot  where  a  big  stone  from  Egypt 
has  been  placed  to  wipe  out  the  memory  of  regicide,  and  to 
stand  as  an  emblem  of  the  materialistic  policy  which  now 
rules  us;  it  was  answered  at  les  Carmes  and  at  the  Abbaye; 
it  was  answered  on  the  steps  of  Saint  Koch;  it  was  answered 
in  front  of  the  Louvre  in  1830,  and  again  by  the  people 
against  the  King,  as  it  has  since  been  answered  once  more 
by  la  Fayette's  "best  of  all  republics"  against  the  republican 
rebellion,  at  Saint-Merri  and  the  Eue  Transnonnain. 

Every  power,  whether  legitimate  or  illegitimate,  must  de- 
fend itself  when  it  is  attacked;  but,  strange  to  say,  while 
the  people  is  heroic  when  it  triumphs  over  the  nobility,  the 
authorities  are  murderers  when  they  oppose  the  people !  And, 
finally,  if  after  their  appeal  to  force  they  succumb,  they  are 
regarded  as  effete  idiots.  The  present  Government  (1840) 
will  try  to  save  itself,  by  two  laws,  from  the  same  evil  as 
attacked  Charles  X.,  and  which  he  tried  to  scotch  by  two 
decrees.  Is  not  this  a  bitter  mockery  ?  May  those  in  power 
meet  cunning  with  cunning?  Ought  they  to  kill  those  who 
try  to  kill  them? 

The  massacres  of  the  Revolution  are  the  reply  to  the  massa- 
cre of  Saint-Bartholomew.  The  People,  being  King,  did  by 
the  nobility  and  the  King  as  the  King  and  the  nobility  did 
by  the  rebels  in  the  sixteenth  century.  And  popular  writers, 
who  know  full  well  that,  under  similar  conditions,  the  people 
would  do  the  same  again,  are  inexcusable  when  they  blame 
Catherine  de'  Medici  and  Charles  IX. 

"All  power  is  a  permanent  conspiracy,"  said  Casimir 
Perier,  when  teaching  what  power  ought  to  be.  We  admire 
the  anti-social  maxims  published  by  audacious  writers;  why, 
then,  are  social  truths  received  in  France  with  such  disfavor 


8  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

when  they  are  boldly  stated  ?  This  question  alone  sufficiently 
accounts  for  historical  mistakes.  Apply  the  solution  of  this 
problem  to  the  devastating  doctrines  which  flatter  popular 
passion,  and  to  the  conservative  doctrines  which  would  repress 
the  ferocious  or  foolish  attempts  of  the  populace,  and  you 
will  see  the  reason  why  certain  personages  are  popular  or 
unpopular.  Laubardemont  and  Laffemas,  like  some  people 
now  living,  were  devoted  to  the  maintenance  of  the  power 
they  believed  in.  Soldiers  and  judges,  they  obeyed  a  Royal 
authority.  D'Orthez,  in  our  day,  would  be  discharged  from 
office  for  misinterpreting  orders  from  the  Ministry,  but 
Charles  X.  left  him  to  govern  his  province.  The  power  of 
the  masses  is  accountable  to  no  one;  the  power  of  one  is 
obliged  to  account  to  its  subjects,  great  and  small  alike. 

Catherine,  like  Philip  II.  and  the  Duke  of  Alva,  like  the 
Guises  and  Cardinal  Granvelle,  foresaw  the  future  to  which 
the  Reformation  was  dooming  Europe.  They  saw  mon- 
archies, religion,  and  power  all  overthrown.  Catherine,  from 
the  Cabinet  of  the  French  kings,  forthwith  issued  sentence 
of  death  on  that  inquiring  spirit  which  threatened  modem 
society — a  sentence  which  Louis  XIV.  finally  carried  out. 
The  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  was  a  measure  that 
proved  unfortunate,  simply  in  consequence  of  the  irritation 
Louis  XIV.  had  aroused  in  Europe.  x\t  any  other  time 
England,  Holland,  and  the  German  Empire  would  not  have 
encouraged  on  their  territory  French  exiles  and  French 
rebels. 

Why,  in  these  days,  refuse  to  recognize  the  greatness  which 
the  majestic  adversary  of  that  most  barren  heresy  derived 
from  the  struggle  itself?  Calvinists  have  written  strongly 
against  Charles  IX.'s  stratagems ;  but  travel  through  France : 
as  you  see  the  ruins  of  so  many  fine  churches  destroyed,  and 
consider  the  vast  breaches  made  by  religious  fanatics  in  the 
social  body;  when  you  learn  the  revenges  they  took,  while 
deploring  the  mischief  of  individualism — ^the  plague  of 
Prance  to-day,  of  which  the  germ  lay  in  the  questions  of 
liberty  of  conscience  which  they  stirred  up — ^you  will  ask 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  9 

yourself  on  which  side  were  the  barbarians.  There  are  al- 
ways, as  Catherine  says  in  the  third  part  of  this  Study,  "un- 
luckily, in  all  ages,  hypocritical  writers  ready  to  bewail  two 
hundred  scoundrels  killed  in  due  season."  Caesar,  who  tried 
to  incite  the  Senate  to  pity  for  Catiline's  party,  would  very 
likely  have  conquered  Cicero  if  he  had  had  newspapers  and 
an  Opposition  at  his  service. 

Another  consideration  accounts  for  Catherine's  historical 
and  popular  disfavor.  In  France  the  Opposition  has  always 
been  Protestant,  because  its  policy  has  never  been  anything 
but  negative;  it  has  inherited  the  theories  of  the  Lutherans, 
the  Calvinists,  and  the  Protestants  on  the  terrible  texts  of 
liberty,  tolerance,  progress,  and  philanthropy.  The  oppo- 
nents of  power  spent  two  centuries  in  establishing  the  very 
doubtful  doctrine  of  freewill.  Two  more  were  spent  in  work- 
ing out  the  first  corollary  of  freewill — liberty  of  conscience. 
Our  age  is  striving  to  prove  the  second — political  liberty. 

Standing  between  the  fields  already  traversed  and  the  fields 
as  yet  untrodden,  Catherine  and  the  Church  proclaimed  the 
salutary  principle  of  modern  communities,  Una  fides,  units 
Dominus,  but  asserting  their  right  of  life  and  death  over  all 
innovators.  Even  if  she  had  been  conquered,  succeeding  times 
have  shown  that  Catherine  was  right.  The  outcome  of  free- 
will, religious  liberty,  and  political  liberty  (note,  this  does 
not  mean  civil  liberty)  is  France  as  we  now  see  it. 

And  what  is  France  in  1840?  A  country  exclusively  ab- 
sorbed in  material  interests,  devoid  of  patriotism,  devoid  of 
conscience;  where  authority  is  powerless;  where  electoral 
rights,  the  fruit  of  freewill  and  political  liberty,  raise  none 
but  mediocrities ;  where  brute  force  is  necessary  to  oppose  the 
violence  of  the  populace;  where  discussion,  brought  to  bear 
on  the  smallest  matter,  checks  every  action  of  the  body 
politic;  and  where  individualism — the  odious  result  of  the 
indefinite  subdivision  of  property,  which  destroys  family  co- 
hesion— will  devour  everything,  even  the  nation,  which  sheer 
selfishness  will  some  day  lay  open  to  invasion.  Men  will  say, 
"Why  not  the  Tzar?"  as  they  now  say,  "Why  not  the  Due 


10  ABOUT  CarrHERlNE  DE'  MBDId 

d'Orleans  ?"  We  do  not  care  for  many  things  even  now ;  fifty 
years  hence  we  shall  care  for  nothing. 

Therefore,  according  to  Catherine — and  according  to  all 
who  wish  to  see  Society  soundly  organized — man  as  a  social 
unit,  as  a  subject^  has  no  freewill,  has  no  right  to  accept  th« 
dogma  of  liberty  of  conscience,  or  to  have  political  liberty. 
Still,  as  no  community  can  subsist  without  some  guarantee 
given  to  the  subject  against  the  sovereign,  the  subject  derives 
from  that  certain  liberties  under  restrictions.  Liberty — no, 
but  liberties — ^yes;  well  defined  and  circumscribed  liberties. 
This  is  in  the  nature  of  things.  For  instance,  it  is  beyond 
human  power  to  fetter  freedom  of  thought;  and  no  sovereign 
may  ever  tamper  with  money. 

The  great  politicians  who  have  failed  in  this  long  contest — 
it  has  gone  on  for  five  centuries — have  allowed  their  subjects 
wide  liberties;  but  they  never  recognize  their  liberty  to  pub- 
lish anti-social .  opinions,  nor  the  unlimited  freedom  of  the 
subject.  To  them  the  words  subject  and  free  are,  politically 
speaking,  a  contradiction  in  terms;  and,  in  the  same  way, 
the  statement  that  all  citizens  are  equal  is  pure  nonsense, 
and  contradicted  by  Nature  every  hour.  To  acknowledge 
the  need  for  religion,  the  need  for  authority,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  leave  all  men  at  liberty  to  deny  religion,  to  attack 
its  services,  to  oppose  the  exercise  of  authority  by  the  public 
and  published  expression  of  opinion,  is  an  impossibility  such 
as  the  Catholics  of  the  sixteenth  century  would  have  nothing 
to  say  to.  Alas !  the  triumph  of  Calvinism  will  cost  France 
more  yet  than  it  has  ever  done;  for  the  sects  of  to-day — re- 
ligious, political,  humanitarian,  and  leveling — are  the  train  of 
Calvinism;  and  when  we  see  the  blunders  of  those  in  power, 
their  contempt  for  intelligence,  their  devotion  to  those  ma- 
terial interests  in  which  they  seek  support,  and  which  are  the 
most  delusive  of  all  props,  unless  by  the  special  aid  of  Provi- 
idence  the  genius  of  destruction  must  certainly  win  the  day 
from  the  genius  of  conservatism.  The  attacking  forces,  who 
have  nothing  to  lose,  and  everything  to  win,  are  thoroughly 
in  agreement;  whereas  their  wealthy  opponents  refuse  to 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  11 

make  any  sacrifice  of  money  or  of  self-conceit  to  secure  de- 
fenders. 

Printing  came  to  the  aid  of  the  resistance  inaugurated 
by  the  Vaudois  and  the  Albigenses.  As  soon  as  human 
thought — no  longer  condensed,  as  it  had  necessarily  been  in 
order  to  preserve  the  most  communicable  form — had  assumed 
a  multitude  of  garbs  and  become  the  very  people,  instead  of 
remaining  in  some  sense  divinely  axiomatic,  there  were  two 
vast  armies  to  contend  with — that  of  ideas  and  that  of  men. 
Boyal  power  perished  in  the  struggle,  and  we,  in  France,  at 
this  day  are  looking  on  at  its  last  coalition  with  elements 
which  make  it  difficult,  not  to  say  impossible. 

Power  is  action;  the  electoral  principle  is  discussion.  No 
political  action  is  possible  when  discussion  is  permanently 
established.  So  we  ought  to  regard  the  woman  as  truly  great 
who  foresaw  that  future,  and  fought  it  so  bravely.  The 
House  of  Bourbon  was  able  to  succeed  to  the  House  of  Valois, 
and  owed  it  to  Catherine  de'  Medici  that  it  found  that  crown 
to  wear.  If  the  second  Balafre  had  been  alive,  it  is  very 
doubtful  that  the  Bearnais,  strong  as  he  was,  could  have  seized 
the  throne,  seeing  how  dearly  it  was  sold  by  the  Due  de 
Mayenne  and  the  remnant  of  the  Guise  faction.  The  neces- 
sary steps  taken  by  Catherine,  who  had  the  deaths  of  Fran- 
cois II.  and  Charles  IX.  on  her  soul — both  dying  opportunely 
for  her  safet}^ — are  not,  it  must  be  noted,  what  the  Calvinist 
and  modem  writers  blame  her  for!  Though  there  was  no 
poisoning,  as  some  serious  authors  have  asserted,  there  were 
other  not  less  criminal  plots.  It  is  beyond  question  that  she 
hindered  Pare  from  saving  one,  and  murdered  the  other 
morally  by  inches. 

But  the  swift  death  of  Frangois  II.  and  the  skilfully  con- 
trived end  of  Charles  IX.  did  no  injury  to  Calvinist  interests. 
The  causes  of  these  two  events  concerned  only  the  uppermost 
sphere,  and  were  never  suspected  by  writers  or  by  the  lower 
orders  at  the  time;  they  were  guessed  only  by  de  Thou,  by 
I'Hopital,  by  men  of  the  highest  talents,  or  the  chiefs  of  the 
two  parties  who  coveted  and  clung  to  the  Crown,  and  who 
thought  such  means  indispensable. 


12  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

Popular  songs,  strange  to  say,  fell  foul  of  Catherine's 
morality.  The  anecdote  is  known  of  a  soldier  who  was  roast- 
ing a  goose  in  the  guardroom  of  the  Chateau  of  Tours  while 
Catherine  and  Henri  IV.  were  holding  a  conference  there, 
and  who  sang  a  ballad  in  which  the  Queen  was  insultingly 
compared  to  the  largest  cannon  in  the  hands  of  the  Calvinists. 
Henri  IV.  drew  his  sword  to  go  out  and  kill  the  man;  Cath- 
erine stopped  him,  and  only  shouted  out: 

"It  is  Catherine  who  provides  the  goose!" 

Though  the  executions  at  Amboise  were  attributed  to  Cath- 
erine, and  the  Calvinists  made  that  able  woman  responsible 
for  all  the  inevitable  disasters  of  the  struggle,  she  must  be 
judged  by  posterity,  like  Robespierre  at  a  future  date. 

And  Catherine  was  cruelly  punished  for  her  preference 
for  the  Due  d'Anjou,  which  made  her  hold  her  two  elder  sons 
so  cheap.  Henri  III.  having  ceased,  like  all  spoilt  children, 
to  care  for  his  mother,  rushed  voluntarily  into  such  debauch- 
ery as  made  him,  what  the  mother  had  made  Charles  IX., 
a  childless  husband,  a  king  without  an  heir.  Unhappily, 
Catherine's  youngest  son,  the  Due  d'Alengon,  died — a  natural 
death.  The  Queen-mother  made  every  effort  to  control  her 
son's  passions.  History  preserves  the  tradition  of  a  supper 
to  nude  women  given  in  the  banqueting-hall  at  Chenonceaux 
on  his  return  from  Poland,  but  it  did  not  cure  Henri  III.  of 
his  bad  habits. 

This  great  Queen's  last  words  summed  up  her  policy,  which 
was  indeed  so  governed  by  good  sense  that  we  see  the  Cabinets 
of  every  country  putting  it  into  practice  in  similar  circum- 
stances. 

'^eU  cut,  my  son,"  said  she,  when  Henri  III.  came  to  her, 
on  her  deathbed,  to  announce  that  the  enemy  of  the  throne 
had  been  put  to  death.    "Now  you  must  sew  up  again." 

She  thus  expressed  her  opinion  that  the  sovereign  must 
make  friends  with  the  House  of  Lorraine,  and  make  it  useful, 
as  the  only  way  to  hinder  the  effects  of  the  Guises'  hatred, 
by  giving  them  a  hope  of  circumventing  the  King.  But  this 
indefatigable  cunning  of  the  Italian  and  the  woman  was 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  13 

incompatible  with  Henri  III.'s  life  of  debauchery.  When 
once  the  Great  Mother  was  dead,  the  Mother  of  Armies 
{Mater  castrorum),  the  policy  of  the  Valois  died  too. 

Before  attempting  to  write  this  picture  of  manners  in 
action,  the  author  patiently  and  minutely  studied  the  prin- 
cipal reigns  of  French  history,  the  quarrels  of  the  Burgun- 
dians  and  the  Armagnacs,  and  those  of  the  Guises  and  the 
Valois,  each  in  the  forefront  of  a  century.  His  purpose 
was  to  write  a  picturesque  history  of  France.  Isabella  of 
Bavaria,  Catherine  and  Marie  de'  Medici,  each  fills  a  con- 
spicuous place,  dominating  from  the  fourteenth  to  the  seven- 
teenth centuries,  and  leading  up  to  Louis  XIV. 

Of  these  three  queens,  Catherine  was  the  most  interesting 
and  the  most  beautiful.  Hers  was  a  manly  rule,  not  dis- 
graced by  the  terrible  amours  of  Isabella,  nor  those,  even 
more  terrible  though  less  known,  of  Marie  de'  Medici.  Isa- 
bella brought  the  English  into  France  to  oppose  her  son, 
was  in  love  with  her  brother-in-law,  the  Due  d'Orleans,  and 
with  Boisbourdon.  Marie  de'  Medici's  account  is  still  heavier. 
Neither  of  them  had  any  political  genius. 

In  the  course  of  these  studies  and  comparisons,  the  author 
became  convinced  of  Catherine's  greatness;  by  initiating 
himself  into  the  peculiar  difficulties  of  her  position,  he  dis- 
cerned how  unjust  historians,  biased  by  Protestantism,  had 
been  to  this  queen;  and  the  outcome  was  the  three  sketches 
here  presented,  in  which  some  erroneous  opinions  of  her,  of 
those  who  were  about  her,  and  of  the  aspect  of  the  times, 
are  combated. 

The  work  is  placed  among  my  Philosophical  Studies,  be- 
cause it  illustrates  the  spirit  of  a  period,  and  plainly  shows 
the  influence  of  opinions. 

But  before  depicting  the  political  arena  on  which  Catherine 
comes  into  collision  with  the  two  great  obstacles  in  her 
career,  it  is  necessary  to  give  a  short  account  of  her  previous 
life  from  the  point  of  view  of  an  impartial  critic,  so  that 


14  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

the  reader  may  form  a  general  idea  of  this  large  and  royal 
life  up  to  the  time  when  the  first  part  of  this  narrative  opens. 

Never  at  any  period,  in  any  country,  or  in  any  ruling  family 
was  there  more  contempt  felt  for  legitimacy  than  by  the  famous 
race  of  the  Medici  (in  French  commonly  written  and  pro- 
nounced Medicis),  They  held  the  same  opinion  of  monarchy 
as  is  now  professed  in  Eussia :  The  ruler  on  whom  the  crown 
devolves  is  the  real  and  legitimate  monarch.  Mirabeau  was 
justified  in  saying,  "There  has  been  but  one  mesalliance  in 
my  family — that  with  the  Medici;"  for,  notwithstanding  the 
exertions  of  well-paid  genealogists,  it  is  certain  that  the 
Medici,  till  the  time  of  Averardo  de'  Medici,  gonfaloniere  of 
Florence  in  1314,  were  no  more  than  Florentine  merchants 
of  great  wealth.  The  first  personage  of  the  family  who  filled 
a  conspicuous  place  in  the  history  of  the  great  Tuscan  Ke- 
public  was  Salvestro  de'  Medici,  gonfaloniere  in  1378.  This 
Salvestro  had  two  sons — Cosmo  and  Lorenzo  de'  Medici. 

From  Cosmo  descended  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  the  Due 
de  Nemours,  the  Duke  of  Urbino,  Catherine's  father.  Pope 
Leo  X.,  Pope  Clement  VII.,  and  Alessandro,  not  indeed 
Duke  of  Florence,  as  he  is  sometimes  called,  but  Duke  della 
cittd  di  Penna,  a  title  created  by  Pope  Clement  VII.  as  a 
step  towards  that  of  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany. 

Lorenzo's  descendants  were  Lorenzino — the  Brutus  of 
Florence — who  killed  Duke  Alessandro;  Cosmo,  the  first 
Grand  Duke,  and  all  the  rulers  of  Florence  till  1737,  when 
the  family  became  extinct. 

But  neither  of  the  two  branches — that  of  Cosmo  or  that 
of  Lorenzo — succeeded  in  a  direct  line,  till  the  time  when 
Marie  de'  Medici's  father  subjugated  Tuscany,  and  the  Grand 
Dukes  inherited  in  regular  succession.  Thus  Alessandro  de' 
Medici,  who  assumed  the  title  of  Duke  della  cittd  di  Penna,\ 
and  whom  Lorenzino  assassinated,  was  the  son  of  the  Duke 
of  Urbino,  Catherine's  father,  by  a  Moorish  slave.  Hence 
Lorenzino,  the  legitimate  son  of  Lorenzo,  had  a  double  right 
to  kill  Alessandro,  both  as  a  usurper  in  the  family  and  as  an 
oppressor  of  the  city.    Some  historians  have  indeed  supposed 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  16 

that  Alessandro  was  the  son  of  Clement  VII.  The  event 
that  led  to  the  recognition  of  this  bastard  as  head  of  the 
Eepublic  was  his  marriage  with  Margaret  of  Austria,  the 
natural  daughter  of  Charles  V. 

Francesco  de'  Medici,  the  husband  of  Bianca  Capello,  rec- 
ognized as  his  son  a  child  of  low  birth  bought  by  that  notori» 
ous  Venetian  lady ;  and,  strange  to  say,  Fernando,  succeeding 
Francesco,  upheld  the  hypothetical  rights  of  this  boy.  In- 
deed, this  youth,  known  as  Don  Antonio  de'  Medici,  was  rec- 
ognized by  the  family  during  four  ducal  reigns;  he  won  the 
affection  of  all,  did  them  important  service,  and  was  uni- 
versally regretted. 

Almost  all  the  early  Medici  had  natural  children,  whose 
lot  was  in  every  case  splendid.  The  Cardinal  Giulio  de' 
Medici,  Pope  Clement  VII.,  was  the  illegitimate  son  of 
Giuliano  I.  Cardinal  Ippolito  de'  Medici  was  also  a  bastard, 
and  he  was  within  an  ace  of  being  Pope  and  head  of  the 
family. 

Certain  inventors  of  anecdote  have  a  story  that  the  Duke 
of  Urbino,  Catherine's  father,  told  her:  "A  figlia  d'inganno 
non  manca  mai  figliuolanza"  (A  clever  woman  can  always 
have  children,  a  propos  to  some  natural  defect  in  Henri,  the 
second  son  of  Frangois  I.,  to  whom  she  was  betrothed).  This 
Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  Catherine's  father,  had  married,  for  the 
second  time,  in  1518,  Madeleine  de  la  Tour  d'Auvergne,  and 
died  in  1519,  a  few  days  after  his  wife,  who  died  in  giving 
birth  to  Catherine.  Catherine  was  thus  fatherless  and 
motherless  as  soon  as  she  saw  the  light.  Hence  the  strange 
events  of  her  childhood,  chequered  by  the  violent  struggles 
of  the  Florentines,  in  the  attempt  to  recover  their  liberty, 
against  the  Medici  who  were  determined  to  govern  Florence, 
but  who  were  so  circumspect  in  their  policy  that  Catherine's 
father  took  the  title  of  Duke  of  Urbino. 

At  his  death,  the  legitimate  head  of  the  House  of  the  Medici 
was  Pope  Leo  X.,  who  appointed  Giuliano's  illegitimate  son, 
Giulio  de'  Medici,  then  Cardinal,  Governor  of  Florence.  Ijeo 
X,  was  Catherine's  grand-uncle,  and  this  Cardinal  Giulio, 


18  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

afterwards  Clement  VII.,  was  her  left-handed  uncle  only. 
This  it  was  which  made  Brantome  so  wittily  speak  of  that 
Pope  as  an  "uncle  in  Our  Lady." 

During  the  siege  by  the  Medici  to  regain  possession  of 
Florence,  the  Republican  party,  not  satisfied  with  having  shut 
up  Catherine,  then  nine  years  old,  in  a  convent,  after  strip- 
ping her  of  all  her  possessions,  proposed  to  expose  her  to 
the  fire  of  the  artillery,  between  two  battlements — the  sug- 
gestion of  a  certain  Battista  Cei.  Bernardo  Castiglione  went 
even  further  in  a  council  held  to  determine  on  some  conclu- 
sion to  the  business;  he  advised  that,  rather  than  surrender 
Catherine  to  the  Pope  who  demanded  it,  she  should  be  handed 
over  to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  soldiers.  All  revolutions  of 
the  populace  are  alike.  Catherine's  policy,  always  in  favor 
of  royal  authority,  may  have  been  fostered  by  such  scenes, 
which  an  Italian  girl  of  nine  could  not  fail  to  understand. 

Alessandro's  promotion,  to  which  Clement  VII.,  himself 
a  bastard,  largely  contributed,  was  no  doubt  owing  partly 
to  the  fact  of  his  being  illegitimate,  and  to  Charles  V.'s  af- 
fection for  his  famous  natural  daughter  Margaret.  Thus  the 
Pope  and  the  Emperor  were  moved  by  similar  feelings.  At 
this  period  Venice  was  mistress  of  the  commerce  of  the  world ; 
Rome  governed  its  morals;  Italy  was  still  supreme,  by  the 
poets,  the  generals,  and  the  statesmen  who  were  her  sons.  At 
no  other  time  has  any  one  country  had  so  curious  or  so  various 
a  multitude  of  men  of  genius.  There  were  so  many,  that 
the  smallest  princelings  were  superior  men.  Italy  was  over- 
flowing with  talent,  daring,  science,  poetry,  wealth,  and  gal- 
lantry, though  rent  by  constant  internal,  wars,  and  at  all 
times  the  arena  on  which  conquerors  met  to  fight  for  her  fair- 
est provinces. 

When  men  are  so  great,  they  are  not  afraid  to  confess  their 
weakness ;  hence,  no  doubt,  this  golden  age  for  bastards. 
And  it  is  but  justice  to  declare  that  these  illegitimate  sons 
of  the  Medici  were  ardent  for  the  glory  and  the  advancement 
of  the  family,  alike  in  possessions  and  in  power.  And  as 
soon  as  the  Duke  della  cittd  di  Penna,  the  Moorish  slave's 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDIGI  17 

son,  was  established  as  Tyrant  of  Florence,  he  took  up  the  in- 
terest shown  by  Pope  Clement  VII.  for  Lorenzo  II/s  daugh- 
ter, now  eleven  years  of  age. 

As  we  study  the  march  of  events  and  of  men  in  that  strange 
sixteenth  century,  we  must  never  forget  that  the  chief  ele- 
ment of  political  conduct  was  unremitting  craft,  destroying 
in  every  nature  the  upright  conduct,  the  squareness  which 
imagination  looks  for  in  eminent  men.  In  this,  especially, 
lies  Catherine's  absolution.  This  observation,  in  fact,  dis- 
poses of  all  the  mean  and  foolish  accusations  brought  against 
her  by  the  writers  of  the  reformed  faith.  It  was  indeed  the 
golden  age  of  this  type  of  policy,  of  which  Machiavelli  and 
Spinoza  formulated  the  code,  and  Hobbes  and  Montesquieu; 
for  the  Dialogue  of  "Sylla  and  Eucrates"  expresses  Montes- 
quieu's real  mind,  which  he  could  not  set  forth  in  any  other 
form  in  consequence  of  his  connection  with  the  Encyclo- 
pedists. These  principles  are  to  this  day  the  uneonfessed 
morality  of  every  Cabinet  where  schemes  of  vast  dominion 
are  worked  out.  In  France  we  were  severe  on  Napoleon 
when  he  exerted  this  Italian  genius  which  was  in  his  blood, 
and  its  plots  did  not  always  succeed;  but  Charles  V.,  Cath- 
erine, Philip  II.,  Giulio  II.,  would  have  done  just  as  he  did  in 
the  affairs  of  Spain. 

At  the  time  when  Catherine  was  born,  history,  if  related 
from  the  point  of  view  of  honesty,  would  seem  an  impossible 
romance.  Charles  V.,  while  forced  to  uphold  the  Catholic 
Church  against  the  attacks  of  Luther,  who  by  threatening  the 
tiara  threatened  his  throne,  allowed  Eome  to  be  besieged,  and 
kept  Pope  Clement  VII.  in  prison.  This  same  Pope,  who 
had  no  more  bitter  foe  than  Charles  V.,  cringed  to  him  that 
he  might  place  Alessandro  de'  Medici  at  Florence,  and  the 
Emperor  gave  his  daughter  in  marriage  to  the  bastard  Duke,  i 
No  sooner  was  he  firmly  settled  there  than  Alessandro,  in 
concert  with  the  Pope,  attempted  to  injure  Charles  V.  by  an 
alliance,  through  Catherine  de'  Medici,  with  Francis  I.,  and 
both  promised  to  assist  the  French  king  to  conquer  Italy. 

Lorenzino  de'  Medici  became  Alessandro's  boon  companion, 


18  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

and  pandered  to  him  to  get  an  opportunity  of  killing  him; 
and  Filippo  Strozzi,  one  of  the  loftiest  spirits  of  that  age, 
regarded  this  murder  with  such  high  esteem  that  he  vowed 
that  each  of  his  sons  should  marry  one  of  the  assassin's 
daughters.  The  sons  religiously  fulfilled  the  father's  pledge 
at  a  time  when  each  of  them,  under  Catherine's  protection, 
could  have  made  a  splendid  alliance;  for  one  was  Doria's 
rival,  and  the  other  Marshal  of  France. 

Cosmo  de'  Medici,  Alessandro's  successor,  avenged  the 
death  of  the  Tyrant  with  great  cruelty,  and  persistently  for 
twelve  years,  during  which  his  hatred  never  flagged  against 
the  people  who  had,  after  all,  placed  him  in  power.  He  was 
eighteen  years  of  age  when  he  succeeded  to  the  government; 
his  first  act  was  to  annul  the  rights  of  Alessandro's  legitimate 
sons,  at  the  time  when  he  was  avenging  Alessandro !  Charles 
V.  confirmed  the  dispossession  of  his  grandson,  and  recog- 
nized Cosmo  instead  of  Alessandro's  son. 

Cosmo,  raised  to  the  throne  by  Cardinal  Cibo,  at  once  sent 
the  prelate  into  exile.  Then  Cardinal  Cibo  accused  his 
creature,  Cosmo,  the  first  Grand  Duke,  of  having  tried  to 
poison  Alessandro's  son.  The  Grand  Duke,  as  jealous  of 
his  authority  as  Charles  V.  was  of  his,  abdicated,  like  the 
Emperor,  in  favor  of  his  son  Francesco,  after  ordering  the 
death  of  Don  Garcias,  his  other  son,  in  revenge  for  that  of 
Cardinal  Giovanni  de'  Medici,  whom  Garcias  had  as- 
sassinated. 

Cosmo  I.  and  his  son  Francesco,  who  ought  to  have  been 
devoted,  soul  and  body,  to  the  Royal  House  of  France,  the 
only  power  able  to  lend  them  support,  were  the  humble  ser- 
vants of  Charles  Y.  and  Philip  II.,  and  consequently  the 
secret,  perfidious,  and  cowardly  foes  of  Catherine  de'  Medici, 
one  of  the  glories  of  their  race. 

Such  are  the  more  important  features — contradictory  and 
illogical  indeed — the  dishonest  acts,  the  dark  intrigues  of  the 
House  of  the  Medici  alone.  From  this  sketch  some  idea  may 
be  formed  of  the  other  princes  of  Italy  and  Europe.  Every 
envoy  from  Cosmo  I.  to  the  Court  of  France  had  secret  in- 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  19 

structions  to  poison  Strozzi,  Queen  Catherine's  relation,  when 
he  should  find  him  there.  Charies  V.  had  three  ambassadors 
from  Francis  I.  murdered. 

It  was  early  in  October  1533  that  the  Duke  della  cittct  di 
Penna  left  Florence  for  Leghorn,  accompanied  by  Catherine 
de'  Medici,  sole  heiress  of  Lorenzo  II.  The  Duke  and  the 
Princess  of  Florence,  for  this  was  the  title  borne  by  the  girl, 
now  fourteen  years  of  age,  left  the  city  with  a  large  following 
of  servants,  officials,  and  secretaries,  preceded  by  men-at- 
arms,  and  escorted  by  a  mounted  guard.  The  young  Princess 
as  yet  knew  nothing  of  her  fate,  excepting  that  the  Pope 
and  Duke  Alessandro  were  to  have  an  interview  at  Leghorn; 
but  her  uncle,  Filippo  Strozzi,  soon  told  her  of  the  future  that 
lay  before  her. 

Filippo  Strozzi  had  married  Clarissa  de'  Medici,  whole 
sister  to  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  Duke  of  Urbino,  Catherine's 
father;  but  this  union,  arranged  quite  as  much  with  a  view 
to  converting  one  of  the  stoutest  champions  of  the  popular 
cause  to  the  support  of  Medici  as  to  secure  the  recall  of  that 
then  exiled  family,  never  shook  the  tenets  of  the  rough  sol- 
dier who  was  persecuted  by  his  party  for  having  consented  to 
it.  In  spite  of  some  superficial  change  of  conduct,  somewhat 
overruled  by  this  alliance,  he  remained  faithful  to  the  popular 
side,  and  declared  against  the  Medici  as  soon  as  he  perceived 
their  scheme  of  subjugating  Florence.  This  great  man  even 
refused  the  offer  of  a  principality  from  Leo  X.  x\t  that  time 
Filippo  Strozzi  was  a  victim  to  the  policy  of  the  Medici,  so 
shifty  in  its  means,  so  unvarying  in  its  aim.  ; 

After  sharing  the  Pope's  misfortunes  and  captivity,  when,; 
surprised  by  Colonna,  he  took  refuge  in  the  castle  of  Saint- 
Angelo,  he  was  given  up  by  Clement  YII.  as  a  hostage  and 
carried  to  Naples.  As  soon  as  the  Pope  was  free,  he  fell 
upon  his  foes,  and  Strozzi  was  then  near  being  killed;  he 
was  forced  to  pay  an  enormous  bribe  to  get  out  of  the  prison, 
where  he  was  closely  guarded.  As  soon  as  he  was  at  liberty, 
with  the  natural   trustfulness  of  an  honest   man,  he   was 


20  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

simple  enough  to  appear  before  Clement  VII.,  who  perhaps 
had  flattered  himself  that  he  was  rid  of  him.  The  Pope  had 
so  much  to  be  ashamed  of  that  he  received  Strozzi  very  un- 
graciously. Thus  Strozzi  had  very  early  begun  his  appren- 
ticeship to  the  life  of  disaster,  which  is  that  of  a  man  who 
is  honest  in  politics,  and  whose  conscience  will  not  lend 
itself  to  the  caprices  of  opportunity,  whose  actions  are  pleas- 
ing only  to  virtue,  which  is  persecuted  by  all — by  the  popu- 
lace, because  it  withstands  their  blind  passions ;  by  authority, 
because  it  resists  its  usurpations. 

The  life  of  these  great  citizens  is  a  martyrdom,  through 
which  they  have  nothing  to  support  them  but  the  strong 
voice  of  conscience,  and  the  sense  of  social  duty,  which  in  all 
cases  dictates  their  conduct. 

There  were  many  such  men  in  the  Eepublic  of  Florence, 
all  as  great  as  Strozzi  and  as  masterly  as  their  adversaries 
on  the  Medici  side,  though  beaten  by  Florentine  cunning. 
In  the  conspiracy  of  the  Tazzi,  what  can  be  finer  than  the 
attitude  of  the  head  of  that  house  ?  His  trade  was  immense, 
and  he  settled  all  his  accounts  with  Asia,  the  Levant,  and 
Europe  before  carrying  out  that  great  plot,  to  \he  end  that 
his  correspondents  should  not  be  the  losers  if  he  should  fail. 

And  the  history  of  the  rise  of  the  Medici  family  in  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  is  one  of  the  finest  that 
remains  unwritten,  though  men  of  great  genius  have  at- 
tempted it.  It  is  not  the  history  of  a  republic,  or  of  any 
particular  community  or  phase  of  civilization;  it  is  the 
history  of  political  man,  and  the  eternal  history  of  political 
developments,  that  of  usurpers  and  conquerors. 

On  his  return  to  Florence,  Filippo  Strozzi  restored  the 
ancient  form  of  government,  and  banished  Ippolito  de' 
Medici,  another  bastard,  as  well  as  Alessandro,  with  whom 
he  was  now  acting.  But  he  then  was  afraid  of  the  incon- 
stancy of  the  populace;  and  as  he  dreaded  Pope  Clement's 
vengeance,  he  went  to  take  charge  of  a  large  commercial  house 
he  had  at  Lyons  in  correspondence  with  his  bankers  at  Venice 
and  Eome,  in  France,  and  in  Spain.    A  strange  fact !    These 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDlCl  tl 

men,  who  bore  the  burden  of  public  affairs  as  well  as  that 
of  a  perennial  struggle  with  the  Medici,  to  say  nothing  of 
their  squabbles  with  their  own  party,  could  also  endure  the 
eares  of  commerce  and  speculation,  of  banking  with  all  its 
complications,  which  the  vast  multiplicity  of  coinages  and 
frequent  forgeries  made  far  more  difficult  then  than  now. 
The  word  banker  is  derived  from  the  bench  on  which  they 
eat,  and  which  served  also  to  ring  the  gold  and  silver  pieces 
on.  Strozzi  found  in  his  adored  wife's  death  a  pretext  to 
offer  to  the  Eepublican  party,  whose  police  is  always  all  the 
more  terrible  because  everybody  is  a  voluntary  spy  in  the 
name  of  Liberty,  which  justifies  all  things. 

Filippo's  return  to  Florence  happened  just  at  the  time 
when  the  city  was  compelled  to  bow  to  Alessandro's  yoke; 
but  he  had  previously  been  to  see  Pope  Clement,  with  whom 
matters  were  so  promising  that  his  feelings  towards  Strozzi 
had  changed.  In  the  moment  of  triumph  the  Medici  so 
badly  needed  such  a  man  as  Strozzi,  were  it  only  to  lend  a 
grace  to  Alessandro's  assumption  of  dignity,  that  Clement 
persuaded  him  to  sit  on  the  bastard's  council,  which  was 
about  to  take  oppressive  measures,  and  Filippo  had  accepted 
a  diploma  as  senator.  But  for  the  last  two  years  and  a  half — 
like  Seneca  and  Burrhus  with  Nero — he  had  noted  the  be- 
ginnings of  tyranny.  He  found  himself  the  object  of  dis- 
trust to  the  populace,  and  so  little  in  favor  with  the  Medici, 
whom  he  opposed,  that  he  foresaw  a  catastrophe.  And  as 
soon  as  he  heard  from  Alessandro  of  the  negotiations  for  the 
marriage  of  Catherine  with  a  French  Prince,  which  were 
perhaps  to  be  concluded  at  Leghorn,  where  the  contracting 
powers  had  agreed  to  meet,  he  resolved  to  go  to  France  and 
follow  the  fortunes  of  his  niece,  who  would  need  a  guardian. 
Alessandro,  delighted  to  be  quit  of  a  man  so  difficult  to 
manage  in  what  concerned  Florence,  applauded  this  decision, 
which  spared  him  a  murder,  and  advised  Strozzi  to  place  him- 
self at  the  head  of  Catherine's  household. 

In  point  of  fact,  to  dazzle  the  French  Court,  the  Medici 
had  constituted  a  brilliant  suite  for  the  young  girl  whom 

-3 


SS  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MBDIGI 

they  quite  incorrectly  styled  the  Princess  of  Florence,  and 
who  was  also  called  the  Duchess  of  Urbino.  The  procession, 
at  the  head  of  it  Duke  Alessandro,  Catherine,  and  Strozzi, 
consisted  of  more  than  a  thousand  persons,  exclusive  of  the 
escort  and  serving-men ;  and  when  the  last  of  them  were  still 
at  the  gate  of  Florence,  the  foremost  had  already  got  beyond 
the  first  village  outside  the  town — ^where  straw  plait  for  hats 
is  now  made. 

It  was  beginning  to  be  generally  known  that  Catherine 
'was  to  marry  a  son  of  Francis  the  First,  but  as  yet  it  was 
no  more  than  a  rumor  which  found  confirmation  in  the 
country  from  this  triumphant  progress  from  Florence  ta 
Leghorn.  From  the  preparations  required,  Catherine  sus- 
pected that  her  marriage  was  in  question,  and  her  uncle 
revealed  to  her  the  abortive  scheme  of  her  ambitious  family, 
who  had  aspired  to  the  hand  of  the  Dauphin.  Duke  Ales- 
sandro still  hoped  that  the  Duke  of  Albany  might  succeed 
in  changing  the  determination  of  the  French  King,  who, 
though  anxious  to  secure  the  aid  of  the  Medici  in  Italy,  would 
only  give  them  the  Due  d'Orleans.  This  narrowness  lost 
Italy  to  France,  and  did  not  hinder  Catherine  from  being 
Queen. 

This  Duke  of  Albany,  the  son  of  Alexander  Stuart, 
brother  of  James  III.  of  Scotland,  had  married  Anne  de 
la  Tour  de  Boulogne,  sister  to  Madeleine,  Catherine's  mother ; 
he  was  thus  her  maternal  uncle.  It  was  through  her  mother 
that  Catherine  was  so  rich  and  connected  with  so  many 
families;  for,  strangely  enough,  Diane  de  Poitiers,  her  rival, 
was  also  her  cousin.  Jean  de  Poitiers,  Diane's  father,  was 
son  of  Jeanne  de  la  Tour  de  Boulogne,  the  Duchess  of 
Urbino's  aunt.  Catherine  was  also  related  to  Mary  Stuart, 
'her  daughter-in-law. 

Catherine  was  now  informed  that  her  dower  in  money 
would  amount  to  a  hundred  thousand  ducats.  The  ducat 
was  a  gold  piece  as  large  as  one  of  our  old  louis  d'or,  but  only 
half  as  thick.  Thus  a  hundred  thousand  ducats  in  those 
days  represented,  in  consequence  of  the  high  value  of  gold. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DB'  MEDICl  aS 

six  millions  of  francs  at  the  present  time,  the  ducat  being 
worth  about  twelve  francs.  The  importance  of  the  banking- 
house  of  Strozzi,  at  Lyons,  may  be  imagined  from  this,  as 
it  was  his  factor  there  who  paid  over  the  twelve  hundred 
thousand  livres  in  gold.  The  counties  of  Auvergne  and 
Lauraguais  also  formed  part  of  Catherine's  portion,  and  the 
Pope  Clement  VII.  made  her  a  gift  of  a  hundred  thousand 
ducats  more  in  jewels,  precious  stones,  and  other  wedding 
gifts,  to  which  Duke  Alessandro  contributed. 

On  reaching  Leghorn,  Catherine,  still  so  young,  must  have 
been  flattered  by  the  extraordinary  magnificence  displayed 
by  Pope  Clement  VII.,  her  "uncle  in  Our  Lady,"  then  the 
head  of  the  House  of  Medici,  to  crush  the  Court  of  France. 
He  had  arrived  at  the  port  in  one  of  his  galleys  hung  with 
crimson  satin  trimmed  with  gold  fringe,  and  covered  with  an 
awning  of  cloth  of  gold.  This  barge,  of  which  the  decorations 
had  cost  nearly  twenty  thousand  ducats,  contained  several 
rooms  for  the  use  of  Henri  de  France's  future  bride,  furnished 
with  the  choicest  curiosities  the  Medici  had  been  able  to 
collect.  The  oarsmen,  magnificently  dressed,  and  the  seamen 
were  under  the  captaincy  of  a  Prior  of  the  Order  of  the 
Knights  of  Ehodes.  The  Pope's  household  filled  three  more 
barges. 

The  Duke  of  Albany's  galleys,  moored  by  the  side  of  the 
Pope's,  formed,  with  these,  a  considerable  flotilla. 

Duke  Alessandro  presented  the  officers  of  Catherine's 
household  to  the  Pope,  with  whom  he  held  a  secret  confer- 
ence, introducing  to  him,  as  seems  probable.  Count  Sebastian 
Montecuculi,  who  had  just  left  the  Emperor's  service — 
rather  suddenly,  it  was  said — and  the  two  Generals,  Antonio 
de  Leyva  and  Fernando  Gonzaga.  "Was  there  a  premeditated 
plan  between  these  two  bastards  to  make  the  Due  d'Orleans 
the  Dauphin?  What  was  the  reward  promised  to  Count 
Sebastian  Montecuculi,  who,  before  entering  the  service  of 
Charles  V.,  had  studied  medicine  ?  History  is  silent  on  these 
points.  We  shall  see  indeed  in  what  obscurity  the  subject 
is  wrapped.  It  is  so  great  that  some  serious  and  conscientious 
historians  have  recently  reoognized  Montecuculi's  innocence. 


24  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

Catherine  was  now  officially  informed  by  the  Pope  himself 
of  the  alliance  proposed  for  her.  The  Duke  of  Albany  had 
had  great  difficulty  in  keeping  the  King  of  France  to  his 
promise  of  giving  even  his  second  son  to  Catherine  de' 
Medici;  and  Clement's  impatience  was  so  great,  he  was  so 
much  afraid  of  seeing  his  schemes  upset  either  by  some  in 
trigue  on  the  part  of  the  Emperor,  or  by  the  haughtiness  of: 
France,  where  the  great  nobles  cast  an  evil  eye  on  this  union; 
that  he  embarked  forthwith  and  made  for  Marseilles.  He 
arrived  there  at  the  end  of  October  1533. 

In  spite  of  his  splendor,  the  House  of  the  Medici  was 
eclipsed  by  the  sovereign  of  France.  To  show  to  what  a 
pitch  these  great  bankers  carried  their  magnificence,  the 
dozen  pieces  given  by  the  Pope  in  the  bride's  wedding  purse 
consisted  of  gold  medals  of  inestimable  historical  interest, 
for  they  were  at  that  time  unique.  But  Francis  I.,  who  loved 
festivity  and  display,  distinguished  himself  on  this  occasion. 
The  wedding  feasts  for  Henri  de  Valois  and  Catherine  went 
on  for  thirty-four  days.  It  is  useless  to  repeat  here  details 
which  may  be  read  in  every  history  of  Provence  and  Mar- 
seilles as  to  this  famous  meeting  between  the  Pope  and  the 
King  of  France,  which  was  the  occasion  of  a  Jest  of  the  Duke 
of  Albany's  as  to  the  duty  of  fasting;  a  retort  recorded  by 
Brantome  which  vastly  amused  the  Court,  and  shows  the 
tone  of  manners  at  that  time. 

Though  Henri  de  Valois  was  but  three  weeks  older  than 
Catherine,  the  Pope  insisted  on  the  immediate  consummation 
of  the  marriage  between  these  two  children,  so  greatly  did 
he  dread  the  subterfuges  of  diplomacy  and  the  trickery 
commonly  practised  at  that  period.  Clement,  indeed,  anxious 
for  proof,  remained  thirty-four  days  at  Marseilles,  in  the' 
hope,  it  is  said,  of  some  visible  evidence  in  his  young  rela- 
tion, who  at  fourteen  was  marriageable.  And  it  was,  no 
doubt,  when  questioning  Catherine  before  his  departure,  that 
he  tried  to  console  her  by  the  famous  speech  ascribed  to 
Catherine's  father:  "A  figlia  d'inganno,  non  manca  mai  la 
f,gliuolanza." 


ABOm.'  GATHimiNE  DE'  MEDICI  25 

The  strangest  conjectures  have  been  given  to  the  world 
as  to  the  causes  of  Catherine's  barrenness  during  ten  years. 
Few  persons  nowadays  are  aware  that  various  medical  works 
contain  suppositions  as  to  this  matter,  so  grossly  indecent 
that  they  could  not  be  repeated.*  This  gives  some  clue  to 
the  strange  calumnies  which  still  blacken  this  Queen,  whose 
every  action  was  distorted  to  her  injury.  The  reason  lay 
simply  with  her  husband.  It  is  sufficient  evidence  that  at 
a  time  when  no  prince  was  shy  of  having  natural  children, 
Diane  de  Poitiers,  far  more  highly  favored  than  his  wife, 
had  no  children ;  and  nothing  is  commoner  in  surgical  experi- 
ence than  such  a  malformation  as  this  Prince's,  which  gave 
rise  to  a  jest  of  the  ladies  of  the  Court,  who  would  have  made 
him  Abbe  de  Saint- Victor,  at  a  time  when  the  French  lan- 
guage was  as  free  as  the  Latin  tongue.  After  the  Prince  was 
operated  on,  Catherine  had  ten  children. 

The  delay  was  a  happy  thing  for  France.  If  Henri  II. 
had  had  children  by  Diane  de  Poitiers,  it  would  have  caused 
serious  political  complications.  At  the  time  of  his  treatment, 
the  Duchesse  de  Valentinois  was  in  the  second  youth  of  wo- 
manhood. These  facts  alone  show  that  the  history  of  Cath- 
erine de'  Medici  remains  to  be  entirely  re-written;  and  that, 
as  l^apoleon  very  shrewdly  remarked,  the  history  of  France 
should  be  in  one  volume  only,  or  in  a  thousand. 

When  we  compare  the  conduct  of  Charles  V.  with  that  of 
the  King  of  France  during  the  Pope's  stay  at  Marseilles,  it 
is  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  Francis — as  indeed  in  every 
instance.  Here  is  a  brief  report  of  this  meeting  as  given  by 
a  contemporary : — 

"His  Holiness  the  Pope,  having  been  conducted  to  the 
Palace  prepared  for  him,  as  I  have  said,  outside  the  port, 
each  one  withdrew  to  his  chamber  until  the  morrow,  when 
his  said  Holiness  prepared  to  make  his  entry.  Which  was 
done  with  great  sumptuousness  and  magnificence,  he  being 
set  on  a  throne  borne  on  the  shoulders  of  two  men  in  his 
pontifical  habit,  saving  only  the  tiara,  while  before  him  went 

*aeeBayle.    AxU  Femd. 


26  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

a  white  palfry  bearing  the  Holy  Sacrament,  the  said  palfrey 
being  led  by  two  men  on  foot  in  very  tine  raiment  holding  a 
bridle  of  white  silk.  After  him  came  all  the  cardinals  in 
their  habit,  riding  their  pontifical  mules,  and  Madame  the 
Duchesf  of  Urbino  in  great  magnificence,  with  a  goodly  com- 
pany of  ladies  and  gentlemen  alike  of  France  and  of  Italy. 
And  the  Pope,  with  all  this  company,  being  come  to  the  place 
prepared  where  they  should  lodge,  each  one  withdrew ;  and  all 
this  was  ordered  and  done  without  any  disorder  or  tumult., 
Now,  while  as  the  Pope  was  making  his  entry,  the  King 
crossed  the  water  in  his  frigate  and  went  to  lodge  there 
whence  the  Pope  had  come,  to  the  end  that  on  the  morrow 
he  might  come  from  thence  to  pay  homage  to  the  Holy  Father, 
as  beseemed  a  most  Christian  King. 

"The  King  being  then  ready,  set  forth  to  go  to  the  Palace 
where  the  Pope  was,  accompanied  by  the  Princes  of  his 
blood,  Monseigneur  the  Due  de  Vendosmois  (father  of  the 
Vidame  de  Chartres),  the  Comte  de  Saint-Pol,  Monsieur  de 
Montmorency,  and  Monsieur  de  la  Roche-sur-Yon,  the  Due 
de  Nemours  (brother  to  the  Duke  of  Savoy  who  died  at  that 
place),  the  Dul^e  of  Albany,  and  many  others,  counts,  barons, 
and  nobles,  the  Due  de  Montmorency  being  at  all  times  about 
the  King^s  person.  The  King,  being  come  to  the  Palace,  was 
received  by  the  Pope  and  all  the  College  of  Cardinals  as- 
sembled in  consistory,  with  much  civility  (fort  humaine- 
ment).  This  done,  each  one  went  to  the  place  appointed 
to  him,  and  the  King  took  with  him  many  cardinals  to  feast 
them,  and  among  them  Cardinal  de'  Medici,  the  Pope's 
nephew,  a  very  magnificent  lord  with  a  fine  escort.  On  the 
morrow,  those  deputed  by  his  Holiness  and  by  the  King 
began  to  treat  of  those  matters  whereon  they  had  met  to  agree, 
r  irst  of  all,  they  treated  of  the  question  of  faith,  and  a  bull 
was  read  for  the  repression  of  heresy,  and  to  hinder  things 
from  coming  to  a  greater  combustion  {une  plus  grande  com- 
hustion)  than  they  are  in  already.  Then,  was  performed  the 
marriage  ceremony  between  the  Due  d'Orleans,  the  King's 
second  son,  and  Catherine  de'  Medici,  Duchess  of  Urbino, 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  27 

his  Holiness'  niece,  under  conditions  the  same,  or  nearly  the 
same,  as  had  been  formerly  proposed  to  the  Duke  of  Albany. 
The  said  marriage  was  concluded  with  great  magnificence, 
and  our  Holy  Father  married  them.*  This  marriage  being 
thus  concluded,  the  Holy  Father  held  a  consistory,  wherein 
he  created  four  cardinals  to  wait  on  the  King,  to  wit :  Cardi- 
nal le  Veneur,  heretofore  Bishop  of  Lisieux  and  High  Al- 
moner; Cardinal  de  Boulogne,  of  the  family  of  la  Chambre^ 
half-brother  on  his  mother's  side  to  the  Duke  of  Albany* 
Cardinal  de  Chatillon  of  the  family  of  Coligny,  nephew  to 
the  Sire  de  Montmorency;  and  Cardinal  de  Givry." 

When  Strozzi  paid  down  the  marriage  portion  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Court,  he  observed  some  surprise  on  the  part  of 
the  French  nobles ;  they  said  pretty  loudly  that  it  was  a  small 
price  for  such  a  mesalliance — what  would  they  say  to-day? 
Cardinal  Ippolito  replied : 

"Then  you  are  not  informed  as  to  your  King's  secrets. 
His  Holiness  consents  to  bestow  on  France  three  pearls  of  in- 
estimable price — Genoa,  Milan,  and  Naples." 

The  Pope  left  Count  Sebastian  Montecuculi  to  present 
himself  at  the  French  Court,  where  he  made  an  offer  of  his 
services,  complaining  of  Antonio  de  Leyva  and  Fernando 
Gonzaga,  for  which  reason  he  was  accepted.  Montecuculi  was 
not  one  of  Catherine's  household,  which  was  composed  en- 
tirely of  French  ladies  and  gentlemen;  for,  by  a  law  of  the 
realm  which  the  Pope  was  rejoiced  to  see  carried  out,  Cath- 
erine was  naturalized  by  letters  patent  before  her  marriage. 
Montecuculi  was  at  first  attached  to  the  household  of  the 
Queen,  Charles  V.'s  sister.  Then,  not  long  after,  he  entered 
the  Dauphin's  service  in  the  capacity  of  cupbearer. 

The  Duchesse  d' Orleans  found  herself  entirely  swamped 
at  the  Court  of  Francis  I.  Her  young  husband  was  in  love; 
with  Diane  de  Poitiers,  who  was  certainly  her  equal  in  point' 
of  birth,  and  a  far  greater  lady.  The  daughter  of  the  Medici 

*At  that  time  in  French,  as  in  Italian,  the  words  marry  and  espouse  were  used  in  a 
contrary  sense  to  their  present  meaning.  Marier  was  the  fact  of  being  married, 
ipouser  was  the  priestly  function. 


28  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

took  rank  below  Queen  Eleanor,  Charles  V.'s  sister,  and  tlie 
Duchesse  d'Etampes,  whose  marriage  to  the  head  of  the 
family  of  de  Brosse  had  given  her  one  of  the  most  powerful 
positions  and  highest  titles  in  France.  Her  aunt,  the 
Duchess  of  Albany,  the  Queen  of  Navarre,  the  Duchesse  de 
Guise,  the  Duchesse  de  Vendome,  the  wife  of  the  Connetable, 
and  many  other  women,  by  their  birth  and  privileges  as  well 
as  by  their  influence  in  the  most  sumptuous  Court  ever  held 
by  a  French  King — ^not  excepting  Louis  XIV. — ^wholly 
eclipsed  the  daughter  of  the  Florentine  merchants,  who  was 
indeed  more  illustrious  and  richer  through  the  Tour  de  Bou- 
logne family  than  through  her  descent  from  the  Medici. 

Filippo  Strozzi,  a  republican  at  heart,  regarded  his  niece's 
position  as  so  critical  and  difficult,  that  he  felt  himself  inca- 
pable of  directing  her  in  the  midst  of  conflicting  interests, 
and  deserted  her  at  the  end  of  a  year,  being  indeed  recalled 
to  Italy  by  the  death  of  Clement  VII.  Catherine's  conduct, 
when  we  remember  that  she  was  but  just  fifteen,  was  a  marvel 
of  prudence.  She  very  adroitly  attached  herself  to  the  King, 
her  father-in-law,  leaving  him  as  rarely  as  possible;  she  was 
with  him  on  horseback,  in  hunting,  and  in  war. 

Her  adoration  of  Francis  I.  saved  the  House  of  Medici 
from  all  suspicion  when  the  Dauphin  died  poisoned.  At  that 
time  Catherine  and  the  Due  d'Orleans  were  at  the  King's 
headquarters  in  Provence,  for  France  had  already  been  in- 
vaded by  Charles  V.,  the  King's  brother-in-law.  The  whole 
Court  had  remained  on  the  scene  of  the  wedding  festivities, 
now  the  theatre  of  the  most  barbarous  war.  Just  as  Charles 
v.,  compelled  to  retreat,  had  fled,  leaving  the  bones  of  his 
army  in  Provence,  the  Dauphin  was  returning  to  Lyons  by 
the  Ehone.  Stopping  at  Tournon  for  the  night,  to  amuse 
himself,  he  went  through  some  athletic  exercises,  such  as 
[formed  almost  the  sole  education  he  or  his  brother  received, 
in  consequence  of  their  long  detention  as  hostages.  The 
Prince  being  very  hot — it  was  in  the  month  of  August — 
was  so  rash  as  to  ask  for  a  glass  of  water,  which  was  given 
to  him,  iced,  by  Montecuculi.  The  Dauphin  died  almost  in- 
stantaneously. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  20 

The  King  idolized  his  son.    The  Dauphin  was  indeed,  as . 
historians   are   agreed,   a   very   accomplished   Prince.     His 
father,  in  despair,  gave  the  utmost  publicity  to  the  proceed- 
ings against  Montecuculi,  and  placed  the  matter  in  the  hands 
of  the  most  learned  judges  of  the  day. 

After  heroically  enduring  the  first  tests  of  torture  without 
confessing  anything,  the  Count  made  an  avowal  by  which  he 
fully  implicated  the  Emperor  and  his  two  generals,  Antonio 
de  Leyva  and  Fernando  Gonzaga.  This,  however,  did  not 
satisfy  Francis  I.  Never  was  a  case  more  solemnly  thrashed 
out  than  this.  An  eye-witness  gives  the  following  account  of 
what  the  King  did : — 

"The  King  called  all  the  Princes  of  the  Blood,  and  all  the 
Knights  of  his  Order,  and  many  other  high  personages  of 
the  realm,  to  meet  at  Lyons;  the  Pope's  Legate  and  Nuncio, 
the  cardinals  who  were  of  his  Court,  and  the  ambassadors  of 
England,  Scotland,  Portugal,  Venice,  Ferrara,  and  others; 
together  with  all  the  princes  and  great  nobles  of  foreign  coun- 
tries, both  of  Italy  and  of  Germany,  who  were  at  that  time 
residing  at  his  Court,  to-wit:  The  Duke  of  Wittemberg,  in 
Allemaigne ;  the  Dukes  of  Somma,  of  Arianna,  and  of  Atria ; 
the  Princes  of  Melphe  [Malfi?]  (who  had  desired  to  marry 
Catherine),  and  of  Stilliano,  Neapolitan;  the  Marquis  di 
Vigevo,  of  the  House  of  Trivulzio,  Milanese ;  the  Signor  Gio- 
vanni Paolo  di  Ceri,  Eoman;  the  Signor  Cesare  Fregose, 
Genoese;  the  Signor  Annibale  Gonzaga,  Mantuan,  and  many 
more.  Who  being  assembled,  he  caused  to  be  read  in  their 
presence,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  the  trial  of  that 
wretched  man  who  had  poisoned  his  late  Highness  the  Dau- 
phin, with  all  the  interrogations,  confessions,  eonfrontings, 
and  other  proceedings  usual  in  criminal  trials,  not  choosing 
that  the  sentence  should  be  carried  out  until  all  those  present 
had  given  their  opinion  on  this  monstrous  and  miserable 
matter." 

Count  Montecuculi's  fidelity  and  devotion  may  seem  ex- 
traordinary in  our  day  of  universal  indiscretion,  when  every- 
body, and  even  Ministers,  talk  over  the  most  trivial  incidents 


30  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

in  which  they  have  put  a  finger;  but  in  those  times  princes 
could  ooramand  devoted  servants,  or  knew  how  to  choose 
them.  There  were  monarchical  Moreys  then,  because  there 
was  faith.  Never  look  for  great  things  from  self-interest: 
interests  may  change;  but  look  for  anything  from  feeling, 
from  religious  faith,  monarchical  faith,  patriotic  faith. 
These  three  beliefs  alone  can  produce  a  Berthereau  of 
'Geneva,  a  Sydney  or  a  Strafford  in  England,  assassins  toi 
murder  Thomas  a  Becket,  or  a  Montecuculi;  Jacques  CcBur 
and  Jeanne  d'Arc,  or  Eichelieu  and  Danton;  a  Bonchamp,  a 
Talmont,  or  a  Clement,  a  Chabot. 

Charles  V.  made  use  of  the  highest  personages  to  carry 
out  the  murder  of  three  ambassadors  from  Francis  I.  A 
year  later  Lorenzino,  Catherine's  cousin,  assassinated  Duke 
Alessandro  after  three  years  of  dissimulation,  and  in  circum- 
stances which  gained  him  the  surname  of  the  Florentine 
Brutus.  The  rank  of  the  victim  was  so  little  a  check  on  such 
undertakings  that  neither  Leo  X.  nor  Clement  VII.  seems  to 
have  died  a  natural  death.  Mariana,  the  historian  of  Philip 
II.,  almost  jests  in  speaking  of  the  death  of  the  Queen  of 
Spain,  a  Princess  of  France,  saying  that  "for  the  greater 
glory  of  the  Spanish  throne  God  suffered  the  blindness  of 
the  doctors  who  treated  the  Queen  for  dropsy."  When  King 
Henri  II.  allowed  himself  to  utter  a  scandal  which  deserved 
a  sword-thrust,  he  could  find  la  Chataignerie  willing  to 
take  it.  At  that  time  royal  personages  had  their  meals 
served  to  them  in  padlocked  boxes  of  which  they  had  the 
key.  Hence  the  droit  de  cadenas,  the  right  of  the  padlock, 
an  honor  which  ceased  to  exist  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV. 

The  Dauphin  died  of  poison,  the  same  perhaps  as  caused 
the  death  of  Madame,  under  Louis  XIV.  Pope  Clement 
had  been  dead  two  years;  Duke  Alessandro,  steeped  in  de- 
bauchery, seemed  to  have  no  interest  in  the  Due  d'Orleans* 
elevation.  Catherine,  now  seventeen  years  old,  was  with 
her  father-in-law,  whom  she  devotedly  admired;  Charles  V. 
alone  seemed  to  have  an  interest  in  the  Dauphin's  death, 
because  Francis  I.  intended  his  son  to  form  an  alliance  which 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  81 

would  have  extended  the  power  of  France.  Thus  the  Count's 
confession  was  very  ingeniously  based  on  the  passions  and 
policy  of  the  day.  Charles  V.  had  fled  after  seeing  his 
troops  overwhelmed  in  Provence,  and  with  them  his  good 
fortune,  his  reputation,  and  his  hopes  of  aggrandizement. 
And  note,  that  even  if  an  innocent  man  had  confessed  under 
torture,  the  King  afterwards  gave  him  freedom  of  speech 
before  an  august  assembly,  and  in  the  presence  of  men  with 
whom  innocence  had  a  fair  chance  of  a  hearing.  The  King 
wanted  the  truth,  and  sought  it  in  good  faith. 

In  spite  of  her  now  brilliant  prospects,  Catherine's  position, 
at  court  was  unchanged  by  the  Dauphin's  death;  her  child- 
lessness made  a  divorce  seem  probable  when  her  husband 
should  become  king.  The  Dauphin  was  now  enslaved  by 
Diane  de  Poitiers,  who  had  dared  to  be  the  rival  of  Madame 
d'Etampes.  Catherine  was  therefore  doubly  attentive  and 
insinuating  to  her  father-in-law,  understanding  that  he  was 
her  sole  mainstay. 

Thus  the  first  ten  years  of  Catherine's  married  life  were 
spent  in  the  unceasing  regrets  caused  by  repeated  disap- 
pointments when  she  hoped  to  have  a  child,  and  the  vexations 
of  her  rivalry  with  Diane.  Imagine  what  the  life  must  be 
of  a  princess  constantly  spied  on  by  a  jealous  mistress  who 
was  favored  by  the  Catholic  party,  and  by  the  strong  support 
the  Senechale  had  acquired  through  the  marriage  of  her 
daughters — one  to  Eobert  de  la  Mark,  Due  de  Bouillon, 
Prince  de  Sedan;  the  other  to  Claude  de  Lorraine,  Due 
d'Aumale. 

^  Swamped  between  the  party  of  the  Duehesse  d'Etampes 
and  that  of  the  Senechale  (the  title  borne  by  Diane  de 
Poitiers  during  the  reign  of  Francis  I.),  who  divided  the 
Court  and  political  feeling  between  the  two  mortal  foes, 
Catherine  tried  to  be  the  friend  of  both  the  Duchess  and 
Diane  de  Poitiers.  She,  who  was  to  become  so  great  a  queen, 
played  the  part  of  a  subaltern.  Thus  she  served  her  appren- 
ticeship to  the  double-faced  policy  which  afterwards  was 
the  secret  clue  to  her  life.    At  a  later  date  the  queen  found 


82  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

herself  between  the  Catholics  and  the  Calvinists,  as  the 
woman  had  been,  for  ten  years,  between  Madame  d'Etampes 
and  Madame  de  Poitiers, 

She  studied  the  contradictions  of  French  policy.  Francis 
upheld  Calvin  and  the  Lutherans,  to  annoy  Charles  V.  Then, 
after  having  covertly  and  patiently  fostered  the  Eeformation 
in  Germany,  after  tolerating  Calvin's  presence  at  the  Court 
of  Navarre,  he  turned  against  it  with  undisguised  severity.) 
So  Catherine  could  see  the  Court  and  the  women  of  the 
Court  playing  with  the  fire  of  heresy;  Diane  at  the  head  of 
the  Catholic  party  with  the  Guises,  only  because  the  Duchesse 
d'Etampes  was  on  the  side  of  Calvin  and  the  Protestants. 

This  was  Catherine's  political  education ;  and  in  the  King^s 
private  circle  she  could  study  the  mistakes  made  by  the 
Medici.  The  Dauphin  was  antagonistic  to  his  father  on 
every  point;  he  was  a  bad  son.  He  forgot  the  hardest  but 
the  tiniest  axiom  of  Royalty,  namely,  that  the  throne  is  a 
responsible  entity,  and  that  a  son  who  may  oppose  his  father 
during  his  lifetime  must  carry  out  his  policy  on  succeeding 
to  the  throne.  Spinoza,  who  was  as  deep  a  politician  as  he 
was  a  great  philosopher,  says,  in  treating  of  the  case  of  a 
king  who  has  succeeded  to  another  by  a  revolution  or  by 
treason:  "If  the  new  King  hopes  to  secure  his  throne  and 
protect  his  life,  he  must  display  so  much  zeal  in  avenpng  his 
predecessor's  death  that  no  one  shall  feel  tempted  to  repeat 
such  a  crime.  But  to  avenge  him  worthily  it  is  not  enough 
that  he  should  shed  the  blood  of  his  subjects;  he  must  con- 
firm the  maxims  of  him  whose  place  he  fills,  and  walk  in 
the  same  ways  of  government." 

It  was  the  application  of  this  principle  which  gave  the 
Medici  to  Florence.  Cosmo  I.,  Alessandro's  successor,  eleven 
years  later  instigated  the  murder,  at  Venice,  of  the  Florentine 
Brutus,  and,  as  has  been  said,  persecuted  the  Strozzi  without 
mercy.  It  was  the  neglect  of  this  principle  that  overthrew 
Louis  XVI.  That  King  was  false  to  every  principle  of  gov- 
ernment when  he  reinstated  the  Parlements  suppressed  by 
his  grandfather.     Louis  XV.  had  been  clear-sighted;  the 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  3S 

Parlements,  and  especially  that  of  Paris,  were  quite  half 
to  blame  for  the  disorders  that  necessitated  the  assembling 
of  the  States-General.  Louis  XV.'s  mistake  was  that  when 
he  threw  down  that  barrier  between  the  throne  and  the  people, 
he  did  not  erect  a  stronger  one,  that  he  did  not  substitute 
for  the  Parlements  a  strong  constitutional  rule  in  the  prov- 
inces. There  lay  the  remedy  for  the  evils  of  the  Monarchy, 
the  voting  power  for  taxation  and  the  incidence  of  the  taxes, 
with  consent  gradually  won  to  the  reforms  needed  in  the 
monarchical  rule. 

Henri  II.'s  first  act  was  to  give  all  his  confidence  to  the 
Connetable  de  Montmorency,  whom  his  father  had  desired 
him  to  leave  in  banishment.  The  Connetable  de  Mont- 
morency, with  Diane  de  Poitiers,  to  whom  he  was  closely  at- 
tached, was  master  of  the  kingdom.  Hence  Catherine  was 
even  less  powerful  and  happy  as  Queen  of  France  than  she 
had  been  as  the  Dauphiness. 

At  first,  from  the  year  1543,  she  had  a  child  every  year  for 
ten  years,  and  was  fully  taken  up  by  her  maternal  functions 
during  that  time,  which  included  the  last  years  of  Francis 
I.'s  reign,  and  almost  the  whole  of  her  husband's.  It  is  im- 
possible not  to  detect  in  this  constant  child-bearing  the  ma- 
licious influence  of  a  rival  who  thus  kept  the  legitimate  wife 
out  of  the  way.  This  feminine  and  barbarous  policy  was  no 
doubt  one  of  Catherine's  grievances  against  Diane.  Being 
thus  kept  out  of  the  tide  of  affairs,  this  clever  woman  spent 
her  time  in  observing  all  the  interests  of  the  persons  at 
Court,  and  all  the  parties  formed  there.  The  Italians  who 
had  followed  her  excited  violent  suspicions.  After  the  exe- 
cution of  Montecuculi,  the  Connetable  de  Montmorency, 
Diane,  and  most  of  the  crafty  politicians  at  Court  were  racked 
with  doubts  of  the  Medici;  but  Francis  I.  always  scouted 
them.  Still  the  Gondi,  the  Biraguas,  the  Strozzi,  the  Rug- 
gieri,  the  Sardini,  in  short,  all  who  were  classed  as  the 
Italians  who  had  arrived  in  Catherine's  wake,  were  compelled 
to  exercise  every  faculty  of  wit,  policy,  and  courage  to  enable 


M  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

them  to  remain  at  Court  under  the  burden  of  disfavor  that 
weighed  on  them.  During  the  supremacy  of  Diane  de 
Poitiers,  Catherine's  obligingness  went  so  far  that  some  clever 
folks  have  seen  in  it  an  evidence  of  the  profound  dissimula- 
tion to  which  she  was  compelled  by  men  and  circumstances, 
and  by  the  conduct  of  Henri  II,  But  it  is  going  too  far  to 
eay  that  she  never  asserted  her  rights  as  a  wife  and  a  queen. 
Her  ten  children  (besides  one  miscarriage)  were  a  sufficient 
explanation  of  the  King's  conduct,  who  was  thus  set  free 
to  spend  his  time  with  Diane  de  Poitiers.  But  the  King 
certainly  never  fell  short  of  what  he  owed  to  himself;  he 
gave  the  Queen  an  entry  worthy  of  any  that  had  previously 
taken  place,  on  the  occasion  of  her  coronation.  The  records 
of  the  Parlement  and  of  the  Exchequer  prove  that  these  two 
important  bodies  went  to  meet  Catherine  outside  Paris,  as 
far  as  Saint-Lazare.  Here,  indeed,  is  a  passage  from  du 
Tillet's  narrative : — 

*'A  scaffolding  had  been  erected  at  Saint-Lazare,  whereon 
was  a  throne  (which  du  Tillet  calls  a  chair  of  state,  chair e 
de  parement).  Catherine  seated  herself  on  this,  dressed  in 
a  surcoat,  or  sort  of  cape  of  ermine,  covered  with  jewels; 
beneath  it  a  bodice,  with  a  court  train,  and  on  her  head  a 
crown  of  pearls  and  diamonds;  she  was  supported  by  ihe 
Marechale  de  la  Mark,  her  lady  of  honor.  Around  her,  stand- 
ing, were  the  princes  of  the  Blood  and  other  princes  and 
noblemen  richly  dressed,  with  the  Chancellor  of  France  in 
a  robe  of  cloth  of  gold  in  a  pattern  on  a  ground  of  red 
cramoisy.*  In  front  of  the  Queen  and  on  the  same  scaffold- 
ing were  seated,  in  two  rows,  twelve  duchesses  and  countesses, 
dressed  in  surcoats  of  ermine,  stomachers,  trains,  and  fillets, 
that  is  to  say,  coronets,  whether  duchesses  or  countesses. 
There  were  the  Duchesse  d'Estouteville,  de  Montpensier — ■ 
the  elder  and  the  younger — ^the  Princesse  de  la  Roche-sur- 
Yon;  the  Duchesses  de  Guise,  de  Nivemois,  d'Aumale,  de 
Valentinois    (Diane  de  Poitiers) ;  Mademoiselle  the  legiti- 

*  The  old  French  word  cramtiisi  did  not  mean  merely  a  crimson  red,  but  denoted  a 
^lecial  excelleuce  of  the  dye.    (See  Rabelai&\ 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  W 

mized  bastard  *of  France'  (a  title  given  to  the  King's  daugh- 
ter Diane,  who  became  Duchesse  de  Castro-Farnese,  and 
afterwards  Duchesse  de  Montmorency-Damville),  Madame 
la  Connetable,  and  Mademoiselle  de  Nemours,  not  to  mention 
the  other  ladies  who  could  find  no  room.  The  four  capped 
Presidents  (d  mortier),  with  some  other  members  of  the 
Court  and  the  chief  clerk,  du  Tillet,  went  up  on  to  the  plat- 
form and  did  their  service,  and  the  First  President  Lizet, 
kneeling  on  one  knee,  addressed  the  Queen.  The  Chancellor, 
likewise  on  one  knee,  made  response.  She  made  her  entrance 
into  Paris  at  about  three  in  the  afternoon,  riding  in  an  open 
litter,  Madame  Marguerite  de  France  sitting  opposite  to  her, 
and  by  the  side  of  the  litter  came  the  Cardinals  d'Amboise, 
de  Chatillon,  de  Boulogne,  and  de  Lenoncourt,  in  their 
rochets.  She  got  out  at  the  Church  of  Notre-Dame,  and 
was  received  by  the  clergy.  After  she  had  made  her  prayer, 
she  was  carried  along  the  Rue  de  la  Calandre  to  the  Palace, 
where  the  royal  supper  was  spread  in  the  great  hall.  She 
sat  there  in  the  middle  at  a  marble  table,  under  a  canopy 
of  velvet  powdered  with  gold  fleurs  de  lys." 

It  will  here  be  fitting  to  controvert  a  popular  error  which 
some  persons  have  perpetuated,  following  Sauval  in  the  mis- 
take. It  has  been  said  that  Henri  II.  carried  his  oblivion 
of  decency  so  far  as  to  place  his  mistress'  initials  even  on  the 
buildings  which  Catherine  had  advised  him  to  undertake  or 
to  carry  on  at  such  lavish  expense.  But  the  cipher,  which 
is  to  be  seen  at  the  Louvre,  amply  refutes  those  who  have 
so  little  comprehension  as  to  lend  credit  to  such  nonsense, 
a  gratuitous  slur  on  the  honor  of  our  kings  and  queens.  The 
H  for  Henri  and  the  two  C's,  face  to  face,  for  Catherine  seem 
indeed  to  make  two  D's  for  Diane;  and  this  coincidence  was 
no  doubt  pleasing  to  the  King.  But  it  is  not  the  less  certain 
that  the  royal  cipher  was  officially  constructed  of  the  initials 
of  the  King  and  the  Queen.  And  this  is  so  true,  that  the 
same  cipher  is  still  to  be  seen  on  the  corn-market  in  Paris 
which  Catherine  herself  had  built.  It  may  also  be  found  in 
the  crypt  of  Saint-Denis  on  Catherine's  tomb,  which  she 


36  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

caused  to  be  constructed  during  her  lifetime  by  the  side  ot 
that  of  Henri  II.,  and  on  which  she  is  represented  from  life 
by  the  sculptor  to  whom  she  sat. 

On  a  solemn  occasion,  when  he  was  setting  out  on  an 
expedition  to  Germany,  Henri  II.  proclaimed  Catherine  Re- 
gent during  his  absence,  as  also  in  the  event  of  his  death — 
on  March  25,  1553.  Catherine's  bitterest  enemy,  the  author 
of  the  Discours  merveilleux  sur  les  deportements  de  Catherine 
•II.,  admits  that  she  acquitted  herself  of  these  functions  to 
the  general  approbation,  and  that  the  King  was  satisfied  with 
her  administration.  Henri  II.  had  men  and  money  at  the 
right  moment.  And  after  the  disastrous  day  of  Saint-Quen- 
tin,  Catherine  obtained  from  the  Parisians  considerable  sums, 
which  she  forwarded  to  Compiegne,  whither  the  King  had 
come. 

In  politics  Catherine  made  immense  efforts  to  acquire 
some  little  influence.  She  was  clever  enough  to  gain  over 
to  her  interests  the  Connetable  de  Montmorency,  who  was 
all-powerful  under  Henri  II.  The  King's  terrible  reply  to 
Montmorency's  insistency  is  well  known.  This  answer  was 
the  result  of  the  good  advice  given  by  Catherine  in  the  rare 
moments  when  she  was  alone  with  the  King,  and  could  ex- 
plain to  him  the  policy  of  the  Florentines,  which  was  to 
set  the  magnates  of  a  kingdom  by  the  ears  and  build  up  the 
sovereign  authority  on  the  ruins — Louis  XL's  system,  sub- 
sequently carried  out  by  Eichelieu.  Henri  II.,  who  saw  only 
through  the  eyes  of  Diane  and  the  Connetable,  was  quite  a 
feudal  King,  and  on  friendly  terms  with  the  great  Houses 
of  the  realm. 

After  an  ineffectual  effort  in  her  favor  made  by  the  Con- 
netable, probably  in  the  year  1556,  Catherine  paid  great 
court  to  the  Guises,  and  schemed  to  detach  them  from  Diane's 
party  so  as  to  set  them  in  opposition  to  Montmorency.  But, 
unfortunately,  Diane  and  the  Connetable  were  as  virulent 
against  the  Protestants  as  the  Guises  were.  Hence  their 
antagonism  lacked  the  virus  which  religious  feeling  would 
have  given  it.    Besides,  Diane  boldly  defied  the  Queen's  plans 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  37 

by  coquetting  with  the  Guises  and  giving  her  daughter  to  the 
Due  d'Aumale.  She  went  so  far  that  she  has  been  accused 
by  some  writers  of  granting  more  than  smiles  to  the  gallant 
Cardinal  de  Lorraine.* 

The  signs  of  grief  and  the  ostentatious  regret  displayed 
by  Catherine  on  the  King's  death  cannot  be  regarded  as 
genuine.  The  fact  that  Henri  II.  had  been  so  passionately 
and  faithfully  attached  to  Diane  de  Poitiers  made  it  incum- 
bent on  Catherine  that  she  should  play  the  part  of  a  ne- 
glected wife  who  idolized  her  husband;  but,  like  every  clever 
woman,  she  carried  on  her  dissimulation,  and  never  ceased 
to  speak  with  tender  regret  of  Henri  II.  Diane  herself,  it 
is  well  known,  wore  mourning  all  her  life  for  her  husband. 
Monsieur  de  Breze.  Her  colors  were  black  and  white,  and 
the  King  was  wearing  them  at  the  tournament  when  he  was 
fatally  wounded.  Catherine,  in  imitation  no  doubt  of  her 
rival,  wore  mourning  for  the  King  to  the  end  of  her  life. 

On  the  King's  death,  the  Duchesse  de  Valentinois  was 
shamelessly  deserted  and  dishonored  by  the  Connetable  de 
Montmorency,  a  man  in  every  respect  beneath  his  reputation. 
Diane  sent  to  offer  her  estate  and  Chateau  of  Chenonceaux 
to  the  Queen.  Catherine  then  replied  in  the  presence  of 
witnesses,  "I  can  never  forget  that  she  was  all  the  joy  of 
my  dear  Henri;  I  should  be  ashamed  to  accept,  I  will  give 
her  an  estate  in  exchange.  I  would  propose  that  of  Chau- 
mont-on-the-Loire."  The  deed  of  exchange  was,  in  fact, 
signed  at  Blois  in  1559.  Diane,  whose  sons-in-law  were  the 
Due  d'Aumale  and  the  Due  de  Bouillon,  kept  her  whole  for- 
tune and  died  peacefully  in  1566  at  the  age  of  sixty-six.  She 
was  thus  nineteen  years  older  than  Henri  II.  These  dates,! 
copied  from  the  epitaph  on  her  tomb  by  an  historian  who ' 

♦  Some  satirist  of  the  time  has  left  the  following  lines  on  Henri  11.  [in  which  tha 
pun  on  the  words  Sire  and  Cire  (wax)  would  be  lost  in  translation]  :— 

"  Sire,  si  vous  laissez,  comme  Charles  dSsire, 
Comme  Diane  veut,  par  trop  vous  gouvemer, 
Fondre,  p6trir,  moUir,  refoudre,  retoumer, 
Sire,  vous  n'fetes  plus,  vous  n'fites  plus  que  cirs." 
Charles  was  the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine. 
— 4 


38  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

studied  the  question  at  the  end  of  the  last  century,  clear  up 
many  historical  difficulties;  for  many  writers  have  said  she 
was  forty  when  her  father  was  sentenced  in  1523,  while  others 
have  said  she  was  but  sixteen.  She  was,  in  fact,  four-and- 
twenty. 

After  reading  everything  both  for  and  against  her  conduct 
with  Francis  I.,  at  a  time  when  the  House  of  Poitiers  was  in 
the  greatest  danger,  we  can  neither  confirm  nor  deny  any- 
thing. It  is  a  passage  of  history  that  still  remains  obscure. 
We  can  see  by  what  happens  in  our  own  day  how  history  is 
falsified,  as  it  were,  in  the  making. 

Catherine,  who  founded  great  hopes  on  her  rival's  age, 
several  times  made  an  attempt  to  overthrow  her.  On  one 
occasion  she  was  very  near  the  accomplishment  of  her  hopes. 
In  1554,  Madame  Diane,  being  ill,  begged  the  King  to  go  to 
Saint-Germain  pending  her  recovery.  This  sovereign 
coquette  would  not  be  seen  in  the  midst  of  the  paraphernalia 
of  doctors,  nor  bereft  of  the  adjuncts  of  dress.  To  receive 
the  King  on  his  return,  Catherine  arranged  a  splendid  ballet, 
in  which  five  or  six  young  ladies  were  to  address  him  in 
verse.  She  selected  for  the  purpose  Miss  Fleming,  related 
to  her  uncle,  the  Duke  of  Albany,  and  one  of  the  loveliest 
girls  imaginable,  fair  and  golden-haired;  then  a  young  con- 
nection of  her  own,  Clarissa  Strozzi,  with  magnificent  black 
hair  and  rarely  fine  hands;  Miss  Lewiston,  maid  of  honor 
to  Mary  Stuart;  Mary  Stuart  herself;  Madame  Elizabeth 
de  France,  the  unhappy  Queen  of  Spain ;  and  Madame  Claude. 
Elizabeth  was  nine  years  old,  Claude  eight,  and  Mary  Stuart 
twelve.  Obviously,  the  Queen  aimed  at  showing  off  Clarissa 
Strozzi  and  Miss  Fleming  without  other  rivals  in  the  King's 
eyes.  The  King  succumbed :  he  fell  in  love  with  Miss  Flem- 
ing, and  she  bore  him  a  son,  Henri  de  Valois,  Comte  d'An- 
gouleme,  Grand  Prior  of  France.  i 

But  Diane's  influence  and  position  remained  unshaken. 
Like  Madame  de'  Pompadour  later  with  Louis  XV.,  the 
Duchesse  de  Valentinois  was  forgiving.  But  to  what  sort  of 
love  are  we  to  ascribe  this  scheme  on  Catherine's  part  ?  Love 
of  power  or  love  of  her  husband  ?    Women  must  decide. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  89 

A  great  deal  is  said  in  these  days  as  to  the  license  of  the 
press;  bnt  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  to  what  a  pitch  it  was 
carried  when  printing  was  a  new  thing.  Aretino,  the  Vol- 
taire of  his  time,  as  is  well  known,  made  monarchs  tremble, 
and  foremost  of  them  all  Charles  V.  But  few  people  know 
perhaps  how  far  the  audacity  of  pamphleteers  could  go. 
This  Chateau  of  Chenonceaux  had  been  given  to  Diane,  nay, 
she  was  entreated  to  accept  it,  to  induce  her  to  overlook  one 
of  the  most  horrible  publications  ever  hurled  at  a  woman, 
one  which  shows  how  violent  was  the  animosity  between  her 
and  Madame  d'Etampes.  In  1537,  when  she  was  eight-and- 
thirty,  a  poet  of  Champagne,  named  Jean  Voute,  published 
a  collection  of  Latin  verses,  and  among  them  three  epigrams 
aimed  at  her.  We  must  conclude  that  the  poet  was  under 
high  patronage  from  the  fact  that  his  volume  is  introduced 
by  an  eulogium  written  by  Simon  Macrin,  the  King's  First 
Gentleman  of  the  Bed-chamber.  Here  is  the  only  passage 
quotable  to-day  from  these  epigrams,  which  bear  the  title: 
In  Pictaviam,  anum  aulicam.  (Against  la  Poitiers,  an  old 
woman  of  the  Court.) 

"Non  trahit  esea  ficta  praedam." 

"A  painted  bait  catches  no  game,"  says  the  poet,  after 
telling  her  that  she  paints  her  face  and  buys  her  teeth  and 
hair;  and  he  goes  on:  "Even  if  you  could  buy  the  finest  es- 
sence that  makes  a  woman,  you  would  not  get  what  you  want 
of  your  lover,  for  you  would  need  to  be  living,  and  you  are 
dead." 

This  volume,  printed  by  Simon  de  Colines,  was  dedicated 
"To  a  Bishop !" — To  Frangois  Bohier,  the  brother  of  the  man 
who,  to  save  his  credit  at  Court  and  atone  for  his  crime,  made 
an  offering  on  the  accession  of  Henri  II.  of  the  chateau  of 
Chenonceaux,  built  by  his  father,  Thomas  Bohier,  Councillor 
of  State  under  four  Kings :  Louis  XL,  Charles  VIIL,  Louis 
XII.,  and  Francis  I.  What  were  the  pamphlets  published 
against    Madame    de    Pompadour    and    Marie    Antoinette 


40  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

in  comparison  with  verses  that  might  have  been  written  by 
Martial!  Voute  must  have  come  to  a  bad  end.  Thus  the 
estate  and  chateau  of  Chenonceaux  cost  Diane  nothing  but 
the  forgiveness  of  an  offence — a  duty  enjoined  by  the  Gospel. 
Not  being  assessed  by  a  jury,  the  penalties  inflicted  on  the 
Press  were  rather  severer  then  than  they  are  now. 

The  widowed  Queens  of  France  were  required  to  remain 
for  forty  days  in  the  King's  bed-chamber,  seeing  no  light 
^but  that  of  the  tapers;  they  might  not  come  out  till  after 
the  funeral.  This  inviolable  custom  annoyed  Catherine 
greatly ;  she  was  afraid  of  cabals.  She  found  a  way  to  evade 
it.  The  Cardinal  de  Lorraine  coming  out  one  morning — at 
such  a  time!  at  such  a  juncture! — from  the  house  of  "the 
fair  Roman,"  a  famous  courtesan  of  that  day,  who  lived  in 
the  Eue  Culture-Sainte-Catherine,  was  roughly  handled  by 
a  party  of  roisterers.  "Whereat  his  Holiness  was  much 
amazed,"  says  Henri  Estienne,  "and  gave  it  out  that  heretics 
were  lying  in  wait  for  him." — And  on  this  account  the  Court 
moved  from  Paris  to  Saint-Germain.  The  Queen  would  not 
leave  the  King  her  son  behind,  but  took  him  with  her. 

The  accession  of  Francis  II.,  the  moment  when  Catherine 
proposed  to  seize  the  reins  of  power,  was  a  disappointment 
that  formed  a  cruel  climax  to  the  twenty-six  years  of  endur- 
ance she  had  already  spent  at  the  French  Court.  The  Guises, 
with  incredible  audacity,  at  once  usurped  the  sovereign  power. 
The  Due  de  Guise  was  placed  in  command  of  the  army,  and 
the  Connetable  de  Montmorency  was  shelved.  The  Cardinal 
took  the  control  of  the  finances  and  the  clergy. 

Catherine's  political  career  opened  with  one  of  those  dramas 
which,  though  it  was  less  notorious  than  some  others,  was  notj 
the  less  horrible,  and  initiated  her  no  doubt  into  the  agitating 
shocks  of  her  life.  Whether  it  was  that  Catherine,  after 
vainly  trying  the  most  violent  remedies,  had  thought  she 
might  bring  the  King  back  to  her  through  jealousy ;  whether 
on  coming  to  her  second  youth  she  had  felt  it  hard  never  to 
have  known  love,  she  had  shown  a  warm  interest  in  a  gen- 
tleman of  royal  blood,  Frangois  de  Vendome,  son  of  Louis 


ABOUT  CATHEEINE  DE'  MEDICI  « 

de  Vendome — the  parent  House  of  the  Bourbons — ^the 
Vidame  de  Chartres,  the  name  by  which  he  is  known  to  his- 
tory. Catherine's  covert  hatred  of  Diane  betrayed  itself  in 
many  ways,  which  historians,  studying  only  political  devel- 
opments, have  failed  to  note  with  due  attention.  Catherine's 
attachment  to  the  Vidame  arose  from  an  insult  offered  by 
the  young  man  to  the  favorite.  Diane  looked  for  the  most 
splendid  matches  for  her  daughters,  who  were  indeed  of  the 
best  blood  in  the  kingdom.  Above  all,  she  was  ambitious 
of  an  alliance  with  the  Royal  family.  And  her  second  daugh- 
ter, who  became  the  Duchesse  d'Aumale,  was  proposed  in 
marriage  to  the  Vidame,  whom  Francis  I.,  with  sage  policy, 
kept  in  poverty.  For,  in  fact,  when  the  Vidame  de  Chartres 
and  the  Prince  de  Conde  first  came  to  Court,  Francis  I. 
gave  them  appointments!  What?  the  office  of  chamberlains 
in  ordinary,  with  twelve  hundred  crowns  a  year,  as  much  as 
he  bestowed  on  the  humblest  of  his  gentlemen.  And  yet, 
though  Diane  offered  him  immense  wealth,  some  high  office 
under  the  Crown,  and  the  King's  personal  favor,  the  Vidame 
refused.  And  then  this  Bourbon,  factious  as  he  was,  married 
Jeanne,  daughter  of  the  Baron  d'Estissac,  by  whom  he  had 
no  children. 

This  proud  demeanor  naturally  commended  the  Vidame 
to  Catherine,  who  received  him  with  marked  favor,  and  made 
him  her  devoted  friend.  Historians  have  compared  the  last 
Due  de  Montmorency,  who  was  beheaded  at  Toulouse,  with 
the  Vidame  de  Chartres  for  his  power  of  charming,  his 
merits,  and  his  talents. 

Henri  II.  was  not  jealous;  he  did  not  apparently  think  it 
possible  that  a  Queen  of  France  could  fail  in  her  duty,  or 
that  a  Medici  could  forget  the  honor  done  her  by  a  Valois. 
When  the  Queen  was  said  to  be  flirting  with  the  Vidame 
de  Chartres,  she  had  been  almost  deserted  by  the  King  since 
the  birth  of  her  last  child.  So  this  attempt  came  to  nothing 
— as  the  King  died  wearing  the  colors  of  Diane  de  Poitiers. 

So,  at  the  King's  death,  Catherine  was  on  terms  of  gallant 
familiarity  with  the  Vidame,  a  state  of  things  in  no  way  out 


42  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

of  harmony  with  the  manners  of  the  time,  when  love  was  at 
once  so  chivalrous  and  so  licentious  that  the  finest  actions 
seemed  as  natural  as  the  most  blamable.  But,  as  usual,  his- 
torians have  blundered  by  regarding  exceptional  cases  as  the 
rule, 

Henri  II/s  four  sons  nullified  every  pretension  of  the 
Bourbons,  who  were  all  miserably  poor,  and  crushed  under 
the  scorn  brought  upon  them  by  the  Connetable  de  Mont- 
morency's treason,  in  spite  of  the  reasons  which  had  led  him 
to  quit  the  country.  The  Vidame  de  Chartres,  who  was  to 
the  first  Prince  de  Conde  what  Eichelieu  was  to  Mazarin, 
a  father  in  politics,  a  model,  and  yet  more  a  master  in  gal- 
lantry, hid  the  vast  ambition  of  his  family  under  a  semblance 
of  levity.  Being  unable  to  contend  with  the  Guises,  the 
Montmorencys,  the  Princes  of  Scotland,  the  Cardinals,  and 
the  Bouillons,  he  aimed  at  distinction  by  his  gracious  man- 
ners, his  elegance,  and  his  wit,  which  won  him  the  favors 
of  the  most  charming  women,  and  the  heart  of  many  he 
never  thought  about.  He  was  a  man  privileged  by  nature, 
whose  fascinations  were  irresistible,  and  who  owed  to  his  love 
affairs  the  means  of  keeping  up  his  rank.  The  Bourbons 
would  not  have  taken  offence,  like  Jarnac,  at  la  Chataignerie's 
scandal;  they  were  very  ready  to  accept  lands  and  houses 
from  their  mistresses — witness  the  Prince  de  Conde,  who 
had  the  estate  of  Saint- Valery  from  Madame  la  Marechale 
de  Saint-Andre, 

During  the  first  twenty  days  of  mourning  for  Henri  II., 
a  sudden  change  came  over  the  Vidame's  prospects.  Courted 
by  the  Queen-mother,  and  courting  her  as  a  man  may  court 
a  queen,  in  the  utmost  secrecy,  he  seemed  fated  to  play  an 
important  part;  and  Catherine,  in  fact,  resolved  to  make 
him  useful.  The  Prince  received  letters  from  her  to  the 
Prince  de  Conde,  in  which  she  pointed  out  the  necessity  for 
a  coalition  against  the  Guises,  The  Guises,  informed  of  this 
intrigue,  made  their  way  into  the  Queen's  chamber  to  compel 
her  to  sign  an  order  consigning  the  Vidame  to  the  Bastille, 
and  Catherine  found  herself  iijider  the  cruel  necessity  of 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDIO!  43 

submitting.  The  Vidame  died  after  a  few  months'  captivity, 
on  the  day  when  he  came  out  of  prison,  a  short  time  before 
the  Amboise  conspiracy. 

This  was  the  end  of  Catherine  de'  Medici's  first  and  only 
love  affair.  Protestant  writers  declared  that  the  Queen  had 
him  poisoned  to  bury  the  secret  of  her  gallantries  in  the 
tomb. 

,  Such  was  this  woman's  apprenticeship  to  the  exercise  of 
royal  power. 


4i  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 


PART  I 

THE  CALVINIST  MARTTK 

Few  persons  in  these  days  know  how  artless  were  the  dwell- 
ings of  the  citizens  of  Paris  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and 
how  simple  their  lives.  This  very  simplicity  of  habits  and 
thought  perhaps  was  the  cause  of  the  greatness  of  this  primi- 
tive citizen  class — for  they  were  certainly  great,  free  and 
noble,  more  so  perhaps  than  the  citizens  of  our  time.  Their 
history  remains  to  be  written;  it  requires  and  awaits  a  man 
of  genius.  Inspired  by  an  incident  which,  though  little  known, 
forms  the  basis  of  this  narrative,  and  is  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable in  the  history  of  the  citizen  class,  this  reflection 
will  no  doubt  occur  to  every  one  who  shall  read  it  to  the  end. 
Is  it  the  first  time  in  history  that  the  conclusion  has  come 
before  the  facts? 

In  1560,  the  houses  of  the  Rue  de  la  Vieille-Pelleterie  lay 
close  to  the  left  bank  of  the  Seine,  between  the  Pont  Notre- 
Dame  and  the  Pont  au  Change.  The  public  way  and  the 
houses  occupied  the  ground  now  given  up  to  the  single  path 
of  the  present  quay.  Each  house,  rising  from  the  river,  had 
a  way  down  to  it  by  stone  or  wooden  steps,  defended  by  strong 
iron  gates,  or  doors  of  nail-studded  timber.  These  houses, 
like  those  of  Venice,  had  a  door  to  the  land  and  one  to  the 
water.  At  the  moment  of  writing  this  sketch,  only  one  house 
remains  of  this  kind  as  a  reminiscence  of  old  Paris,  and  that 
is  doomed  soon  to  disappear;  it  stands  at  the  corner  of  the 
Petit-Pont,  the  little  bridge  facing  the  guard-house  of  the 
Hotel-Dieu. 

Of  old  each  dwellina;  presented,  on  the  river  side,  the 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  45 

peculiar  physiognomy  stamped  on  it  either  by  the  trade  and 
the  habits  of  its  owners,  or  by  the  eccentricity  of  the  con- 
structions devised  by  them  for  utilizing  or  defiling  the  Seine. 
The  bridges  being  built,  and  almost  all  choked  up  by  more 
mills  than  were  convenient  for  the  requirements  of  naviga- 
tion, the  Seine  in  Paris  was  divided  into  as  many  pools  as 
there  were  bridges.  Some  of  these  old  Paris  basins  would 
have  afforded  delightful  studies  of  color  for  the  painter. 
jWhat  a  forest  of  timbers  was  built  into  the  cross-beams  that 
supported  the  mills,  with  their  immense  sails  and  wheels ! 
What  curious  effects  were  to  be  found  in  the  joists  that  shored 
up  the  houses  from  the  river.  Genre  painting  as  yet,  un- 
fortunately, was  not,  and  engraving  in  its  infancy;  so  we 
have  no  record  of  the  curious  scenes  which  may  still  be  found, 
on  a  small  scale,  in  some  provincial  towns  where  the  rivers 
are  fringed  with  wooden  houses,  and  where,  as  at  Vendome, 
for  instance,  the  pools,  overgrown  with  tall  grasses,  are  di- 
vided by  railings  to  separate  the  various  properties  on  each 
bank. 

The  name  of  this  street,  which  has  now  vanished  from  the 
map,  sufficiently  indicates  the  kind  of  business  carried  on 
there.  At  that  time  the  merchants  engaged  in  any  particular 
trade,  far  from  dispersing  themselves  about  the  city,  gath- 
ered together  for  mutual  protection.  Being  socially  bound 
by  the  guild  which  limited  their  increase,  they  were  also 
united  into  a  brotherhood  by  the  Church.  This  kept  up 
prices.  And  then  the  masters  were  not  at  the  mercy  of  their 
workmen,  and  did  not  yield,  as  they  do  now,  to  all  their 
vagaries;  on  the  contrary,  they  took  charge  of  them,  treated 
them  as  their  children,  and  taught  them  the  finer  mysteries 
of  their  craft.  A  workman,  to  become  a  master,  was  required 
to  produce  a  masterpiece — always  an  offering  to  the  patron 
saint  of  the  guild.  And  will  you  venture  to  assert  that 
the  absence  of  competition  diminished  their  sense  of  perfec- 
tion, or  hindered  beauty  of  workmanship,  when  your  admira- 
tion of  the  work  of  the  older  craftsmen  has  created  the  new 
trade  of  dealers  in  bric-d-hrac? 


4(t  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

In  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  the  fur  trade  was 
one  of  the  most  flourishing  industries.  The  difficulty  of 
obtaining  furs,  which,  coming  from  the  North,  necessitated 
long  and  dangerous  voyages,  gave  a  high  value  to  skins  and 
furriers'  work.  Then,  as  now,  high  prices  led  to  demand, 
for  vanity  knows  no  obstacles. 

In  France,  and  in  other  kingdoms,  not  only  was  the  use 
of  furs  restricted  by  law  to  the  great  nobility,  as  is  proved 
by  the  part  played  by  ermine  in  ancient  coats-of-arms ;  but 
certain  rare  furs,  such  as  vair,  which  was  beyond  doubt  im- 
perial sable,  might  be  worn  only  by  kings,  dukes,  and  men  of 
high  rank  holding  certain  offices.  Vair  (a  name  still  used  in 
heraldry,  vair  and  counter  vair)  was  sub-divided  into  grand 
vair  and  menu  vair.  The  word  has  within  the  last  hundred 
years  fallen  so  completely  into  disuse,  that  in  hundreds  of 
editions  of  Perrault's  fairy  tales,  Cinderella's  famous  slipper, 
probably  of  fur,  menu  vair,  has  become  a  glass  slipper,  pan^ 
toufle  de  verre.  Not  long  since  a  distinguished  French  poet 
was  obliged  to  restore  and  explain  the  original  spelling  of 
this  word,  for  the  edification  of  his  brethren  of  the  press, 
when  giving  an  account  of  the  "Cenerentola,"  in  which  a 
ring  is  substituted  for  the  symbolical  slipper — an  unmeaning 
change. 

The  laws  against  the  use  of  fur  were,  of  course,  perpetually 
transgressed,  to  the  great  advantage  of  the  furriers.  The 
high  price  of  textiles  and  of  furs  made  a  garment  in 
those  days  a  durable  thing,  in  keeping  with  the  furni- 
ture, armor,  and  general  details  of  the  sturdy  life  of  the  time. 
A  nobleman  or  lady,  every  rich  man  as  well  as  every  citizen, 
possessed  at  most  two  dresses  for  each  season,  and  they  lasted 
a  lifetime  or  more.  These  articles  were  bequeathed  to  their 
children.  Indeed,  the  clauses  relating  to  weapons  and  rai- 
ment in  marriage  contracts,  in  these  days  unimportant  by 
reason  of  the  small  value  of  clothes  that  are  constantly  re- 
newed, were  at  that  period  of  great  interest.  High  prices 
had  led  to  durability. 

A  lady's  outfit  represented  a  vast  sum  of  money;  it  was 


ABOUT  OATHEEINE  DE'  MEDICI  47 

Included  in  her  fortune,  and  safely  bestowed  in  those  enor- 
mous chests  which  endanger  the  ceilings  of  modem  houses. 
The  full  dress  of  a  lady  in  1840  would  have  been  the 
deshabille  of  a  fine  lady  of  1540.  The  discovery  of  America, 
the  facility  of  transport,  the  destruction  of  social  distinctions, 
which  has  led  to  the  effacement  of  visible  distinctions,  have 
all  contributed  to  reduce  the  furrier's  craft  to  the  low  ebb 
at  which  it  stands,  almost  to  nothing.  The  article  sold  by  af 
furrier  at  the  same  price  as  of  old — say  twenty  livres — ha^' 
fallen  in  value  with  the  money:  the  livre  or  franc  was  then 
worth  twenty  of  our  present  money.  The  citizen's  wife  or 
the  courtesan  who,  in  our  day,  trims  her  cloak  with  sable, 
does  not  know  that  in  1440  a  malignant  constable  of  the 
watch  would  have  taken  her  forthwith  into  custody,  and 
haled  her  before  the  judge  at  le  Chatelet.  The  English 
ladies  who  are  so  fond  of  ermine  are  unconscious  of  the  fact 
that  formerly  none  but  queens,  duchesses,  and  the  Chancellor 
of  France  were  permitted  to  wear  this  royal  fur.  There  are 
at  this  day  various  ennobled  families  bearing  the  name  of 
Pelletier  or  Lepelletier,  whose  forebears  were  obviously 
wealthy  furriers;  for  most  of  our  citizen  names  were  origi- 
nally surnames  of  that  kind. 

This  digression  not  only  explains  the  long  squabbles  as 
to  precedence  which  the  Drapers'  Guild  carried  on  for  two 
centuries  with  the  Mercers  and  the  Furriers,  each  insisting 
on  marching  first,  as  being  the  most  important,  but  also  ac- 
counts for  the  consequence  of  one  Master  Lecamus,  a  furrier 
honored  with  the  patronage  of  the  two  Queens,  Catherine 
de'  Medici  and  Mary  Stuart,  as  well  as  that  of  the  legal 
profession,  who  for  twenty  years  had  been  the  Syndic  of  his 
Corporation,  and  who  lived  in  this  street.  The  house  oc-' 
cupied  by  Lecamus  was  one  of  the  three  forming  the  three 
corners  of  the  cross-roads  at  the  end  of  the  Pont  au  Change, 
where  only  the  tower  now  remains  that  formed  the  fourth 
corner.  At  the  angle  of  this  house,  forming  the  corner  of 
the  bridge  and  of  the  quay,  now  called  the  Quai  aux  Fleurs, 


48  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

the  architect  had  placed  a  niche  for  a  Madanna,  before  whom 
tapers  constantly  burned,  with  posies  of  real  flowers  in  their 
season,  and  artificial  flowers  in  the  winter. 

On  the  side  towards  the  Eue  du  Pont,  as  well  as  on  that 
to  the  Rue  de  la  Vieille-Pelleterie,  the  house  was  supported 
on  wooden  pillars.  All  the  houses  of  the  trading  quarters 
were  thus  constructed,  with  an  arcade  beneath,  where  foot 
passengers  walked  under  cover  on  a  floor  hardened  by  the 
jmud  they  brought  in,  which  made  it  a  rather  rough  pave- 
ment. In  all  the  towns  of  France  these  arcades  have  been 
called  piliers — in  England  rows — a  general  term  to  which 
the  name  of  a  trade  is  commonly  added,  as  "Piliers  des 
Halles,"  "Piliers  de  la  Boucherie."  These  covered  ways, 
required  by  the  changeable  and  rainy  climate  of  Paris,  gave 
the  town  a  highly  characteristic  feature,  but  they  have  en- 
tirely disappeared.  Just  as  there  now  remains  one  house 
only  on  the  river-bank,  so  no  more  than  about  a  hundred  feet 
are  left  of  the  old  Piliers  in  the  market,  the  last  that  have 
survived  till  now;  and  in  a  few  days  this  remnant  of  the 
gloomy  labyrinth  of  old  Paris  will  also  be  destroyed.  The 
existence  of  these  relics  of  the  Middle  Ages  is,  no  doubt,  in- 
compatible with  the  splendor  of  modern  Paris.  And  these 
remarks  are  not  intended  as  a  lament  over  those  fragments 
of  the  old  city,  but  as  a  verification  of  this  picture  by  the 
last  surviving  examples  now  falling  into  dust,  and  to  win 
forgiveness  for  such  descriptions,  which  will  be  precioiis  in 
the  future  which  is  following  hard  on  the  heels  of  this  age. 

The  walls  were  of  timber  covered  with  slates.  The  spaces 
between  the  timbers  had  been  filled  up  with  bricks,  in  a  way 
that  may  still  be  seen  in  some  provincial  towns,  laid  in  a 
zigzag  pattern  known  as  Point  de  Hongrie.  The  window- 
sills  and  lintels,  also  of  wood,  were  handsomely  carved,  as 
I  were  the  corner  tabernacle  above  the  Madonna,  and  the  pillars 
in  front  of  the  shop.  Every  window,  every  beam  dividing 
the  stories,  was  graced  with  arabesques  of  fantastic  figures 
and  animals  wreathed  in  scrolls  of  foliage.  On  the  street  side, 
as  on  the  river  side,  the  house  was  crowned  with  a  high- 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  40 

pitched  roof  having  a  gable  to  the  river  and  one  to  the 
street.  This  roof,  like  that  of  a  Swiss  chalet,  projected  far 
enough  to  cover  a  balcony  on  the  second  floor,  with  an  orna- 
mental balustrade ;  here  the  mistress  might  walk  under  shel- 
ter and  command  a  view  of  the  street,  or  of  the  pool  shut 
in  between  two  bridges  and  two  rows  of  houses. 

Houses  by  the  river  were  at  that  time  highly  valued.  The 
system  of  drainage  and  water  supply  was  not  yet  invented; 
the  only  main  drain  was  one  round  Paris,  constructed  by 
Aubriot,  the  first  man  of  genius  and  determination  who — 
in  the  time  of  Charles  V. — thought  of  sanitation  for  Paris. 
Houses,  situated  like  this  of  the  Sieur  Lecamus  found  in  the 
river  a  necessary  water-supply,  and  a  natural  outlet  for 
rain  water  and  waste.  The  vast  works  of  this  kind  under 
the  direction  of  the  Trade  Provosts  are  only  now  disappear- 
ing. None  but  octogenarians  can  still  remember  having 
seen  the  pits  which  swallowed  up  the  surface  waters,  in  the 
Eue  Montmartre,  Eue  du  Temple,  etc.  These  hideous  yawn- 
ing culverts  were  in  their  day  of  inestimable  utility.  Their 
place  will  probably  be  for  ever  marked  by  the  sudden  rising 
of  the  roadway  over  what  was  their  open  channel — another 
archaeological  detail  which,  in  a  couple  of  centuries,  the  his- 
torian will  find  inexplicable. 

One  day,  in  1816,  a  little  girl,  who  had  been  sent  to  an 
actress  at  the  Ambigu  with  some  diamonds  for  the  part  of 
a  queen,  was  caught  in  a  storm,  and  so  irresistibly  swept 
away  by  the  waters  to  the  opening  of  the  drain  in  the  Eue 
du  Temple,  that  she  would  have  been  drowned  in  it  but  for 
the  help  of  a  passer-by,  who  was  touched  by  her  cries.  But 
she  had  dropped  the  jewels,  which  were  found  in  a  man-hole. , 
This  accident  made  a  great  commotion,  and  gave  weight 
to  the  demands  for  the  closing  of  these  gulfs  for  swallowing 
water  and  little  girls.  These  curious  structures,  five  feet 
high,  had  more  or  less  movable  gratings,  which  led  to  the 
flooding  of  cellars  when  the  stream  produced  by  heavy  rain 
was  checked  by  the  grating  being  choked  with  rubbish,  which 
the  residents  often  forgot  to  remove. 


50  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

The  front  of  Master  Lecamus'  shop  was  a  large  window, 
but  filled  in  with  small  panes  of  leaded  glass,  which  made, 
the  place  very  dark.  The  furs  for  wealthy  purchasers  were 
carried  to  them  for  inspection.  To  those  who  came  to  buy 
in  the  shop,  the  goods  were  displayed  outside  between  the 
pillars,  which,  during  the  day,  were  always  more  or  less 
blocked  by  tables  and  salesmen  sitting  on  stools,  as  they 
could  still  be  seen  doing  under  the  arcade  of  the  Halles  some 
'fifteen  years  since.  From  these  outposts  the  clerks,  appren- 
tices, and  sewing  girls  could  chat,  question,  and  answer  each 
other,  and  hail  the  passer-by  in  a  way  which  Walter  Scott  has 
depicted  in  the  Fortunes  of  Nigel.  The  signboard,  repre- 
senting an  ermine,  was  hung  out  as  we  still  see  those  of 
village  inns,  swinging  from  a  handsome  arm  of  pierced  and 
gilt  ironwork.    Over  the  ermine  were  these  words : 

LECAMUS 

Furrier 

To  Her  Majesty  the  Queen  and  the  King  our 
Sovereign  Lord 

On  one  side,  and  on  the  other: 

"To  Her  Majesty  the  Queen  Mother 
And  to  the  Gentlemen  of  the  Parlement." 

The  words  "To  Her  Majesty  the  Queen"  had  been  lately 
added;  the  gilt  letters  were  new.  This  addition  was  a  con- 
sequence of  the  recent  changes  produced  by  Henri  II.'s  sudden 

-and  violent  death,  which  overthrew  many  fortunes  at  Court, 
and  began  that  of  the  Guises. 

I'  The  back  shop  looked  over  the  river.  In  this  room  sat 
the  worthy  citizen  and  his  wife,  Mademoiselle  Lecamus.  The 
wife  of  a  man  who  was  not  noble  had  not  at  any  time  any 
right  to  the  title  of  Dame,  or  lady;  but  the  wives  of  the 
citizens  of  Paris  were  allowed  to  call  themselves  Demoiselle 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  61 

(as  we  might  say  Mistress),  as  part  of  the  privileges  granted 
and  confirmed  to  their  husbands  by  many  kings  to  whom 
they  had  rendered  great  services.  Between  this  back  room 
and  the  front  shop  was  a  spiral  ladder  or  staircase  of  wood, 
a  sort  of  corkscrew  leading  np  to  the  next  story,  where  the 
furs  were  stored,  to  the  old  couple's  bedroom,  and  again  to 
the  attics,  lighted  by  dormer  windows,  where  their  children 
'slept,  the  maid-servant,  the  clerks,  and  the  apprentices. 

This  herding  of  families,  servants,  and  apprentices,  and 
the  small  space  allotted  to  each  in  the  dwelling,  where  the 
apprentices  all  slept  in  one  large  room  under  the  tiles,  ac- 
counts for  the  enormous  population  at  that  time  crowded 
together  in  Paris  on  a  tenth  of  the  ground  now  occupied  by 
the  city,  and  also  for  the  many  curious  details  of  mediaeval 
life,  and  the  cunning  love  affairs,  though  these,  pace  the 
grave  historian,  are  nowhere  recorded  but  by  the  story  writers, 
and  without  them  would  have  been  lost. 

At  this  time  a  grand  gentleman — such  as  the  Admiral  de 
Coligny,  for  instance — ^had  three  rooms  for  himself  in  Paris, 
and  his  people  lived  in  a  neighboring  hostelry.  There  were 
not  fifty  mansions  in  all  Paris,  not  fifty  palaces,  that  is  to  say, 
belonging  to  the  sovereign  princes  or  great  vassals,  whose  ex- 
istence was  far  superior  to  that  of  the  greatest  German  rulers, 
such  as  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  or  the  Elector  of  Saxony. 

The  kitchen  in  the  Lecamus'  house  was  on  the  river  side 
below  the  back  shop.  It  had  a  glass  door  opening  on  to 
an  ironwork  balcony,  where  the  cook  could  stand  to  draw 
up  water  in  a  pail  and  to  wash  the  household  linen.  Thus 
the  back  shop  was  at  once  the  sitting-room,  the  dining-room, 
and  the  counting-house.  It  was  in  this  important  room — 
always  fitted  with  richly-carved  wood,  and  adorned  by  some 
chest  or  artistic  article  of  furniture — that  the  merchant  spent 
most  of  his  life;  there  he  had  jolly  suppers  after  his  day's 
/work;  there  were  held  secret  debates  on  the  political  interests 
of  the  citizens  and  the  Eoyal  family.  The  formidable  guilds 
of  Paris  could  at  that  time  arm  a  hundred  thousand  men. 
Their  resolutions  were  stoutly  upheld  by  their  serving-men, 


62  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

their  clerks,  their  apprentices,  and  their  workmen.  Their 
Provost  was  their  commander-in-chief,  and  they  had,  in  the 
Hotel  de  Ville,  a  palace  where  they  had  a  right  to  assemble. 

In  that  famous  "citizens'  parlor"  (parlouer  aux  bourgeois) 
very  solemn  decisions  were  taken.     But  for  the  continual 
sacrifices  which  had  made  war  unendurable  to  the  Guilds,' 
wearied  out  with  losses  and  famine,  Henri  IV.,  a  rebel-made' 
king,  might  never  have  entered  Paris. 

Every  reader  may  now  imagine  for  himself  the  character- 
istic appearance  of  this  corner  of  Paris  where  the  bridge  and 
the  Quay  now  open  out,  where  the  trees  rise  from  the  Quai 
aux  Fleurs,  and  where  nothing  is  left  of  the  past  but  the 
lofty  and  famous  clock-tower  whence  the  signal  was  tolled 
for  the  Massacre  of  Saint-Bartholomew.  Strange  coinci- 
dence !  One  of  the  houses  built  round  the  foot  of  that  tower 
— at  that  time  surrounded  by  wooden  shops — the  house  of 
the  Lecamus,  was  to  be  the  scene  of  one  of  the  incidents 
that  led  to  that  night  of  horrors,  which  proved,  unfortunately, 
propitious  rather  than  fatal  to  Calvinism. 

At  the  moment  when  this  story  begins,  the  audacity  of  the 
new  religious  teaching  was  setting  Paris  by  the  ears.  A 
Scotchman,  named  Stuart,  had  just  assassinated  President 
Minard,  that  member  of  the  Parlement  to  whom  public 
opinion  attributed  a  principal  share  in  the  execution  of  Anne 
du  Bourg,  a  councillor  burnt  on  the  Place  de  Gr^ve  after  the 
tailor  of  the  late  King,  who  had  been  tortured  in  the  presence 
of  Henri  II.  and  Diane  de  Poitiers.  Paris  was  so  closely 
watched,  that  the  archers  on  guard  compelled  every  passer-by 
to  pray  to  the  Virgin,  in  order  to  detect  heretics,  who  yielded 
unwillingly,  or  even  refused  to  perform  an  act  opposed  to 
their  convictions. 

The  two  archers  on  guard  at  the  comer  of  the  Lecamus* 
house  had  just  gone  off  duty;  thus  Christophe,  the  furrier's 
son,  strongly  suspected  of  deserting  the  Catholic  faith,  had 
been  able  to  go  out  without  fear  of  being  compelled  to  adore 
the  Virgin's  image.    At  seven  in  the  evening  of  an  April  day. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  t)E'  MEDICI  S& 

1560,  night  was  falling,  and  the  apprentices,  seeing  only  a 
few  persons  walking  along  the  arcades  on  each  side  of  the 
street,  were  carrying  in  the  goods  laid  out  for  inspection 
preparatory  to  closing  the  house  and  the  shop.  Christophe 
Lecamus,  an  ardent  youth  of  two-and-twenty,  was  standing 
in  the  door,  apparently  engaged  in  looking  after  the  appren- 
tices. 

"Monsieur,"  said  one  of  these  lads  to  Christophe,  pointing, 
out  a  man  who  was  pacing  to  and  fro  under  the  arcade  with 
a  doubtful  expression,  "that  is  probably  a  spy  or  a  thief, 
but  whatever  he  is,  such  a  lean  wretch  cannot  be  an  honest 
man.  If  he  wanted  to  speak  to  us  on  business,  he  would  come 
up  boldly  instead  of  creeping  up  and  down  as  he  is  doing. — 
And  what  a  face!"  he  went  on,  mimicking  the  stranger, 
"with  his  nose  hidden  in  his  cloak !  What  a  jaundiced  eye, 
and  what  a  starved  complexion !" 

As  soon  as  the  stranger  thus  described  saw  Christophe 
standing  alone  in  the  doorway,  he  hastily  crossed  from  the 
opposite  arcade  where  he  was  walking,  came  under  the  pillars 
of  the  Lecamus'  house,  and  passing  along  by  the  shop  before 
the  apprentices  had  come  out  again  to  close  the  shutters,  he 
went  up  to  the  young  man. 

"I  am  Chaudieu !"  he  said  in  a  low  voice. 

On  hearing  the  name  of  one  of  the  most  famous  ministers, 
and  one  of  the  most  heroic  actors  in  the  terrible  drama  called 
the  Eeformation,  Christophe  felt  such  a  thrill  as  a  faithful 
peasant  would  have  felt  on  recognizing  his  King  under  a 
disguise. 

"Would  you  like  to  see  some  furs?"  said  Christophe,  to 
deceive  the  apprentices  whom  he  heard  behind  him.  "Though 
it  is  almost  dark,  I  can  show  you  some  myself." 

He  invited  the  minister  to  enter,  but  the  man  replied  that 
he  would  rather  speak  to  him  out  of  doors.  Christophe 
fetched  his  cap  and  followed  the  Calvinist. 

Chaudieu,  though  banished  by  an  edict,  as  secret  pleni- 
potentiary of  Theodore  de  Beze  and  Calvin — who  directed 
the  Eeformation  in  France  from  Geneva — went  and  came, 
-5 


84  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

defying  the  risk  of  the  horrible  death  inflicted  by  the  Parle- 
ment,  in  concert  with  the  Church  and  the  Monarch,  on  a 
leading  reformer,  the  famous  Anne  du  Bourg.  This  man, 
whose  brother  was  a  captain  in  the  army,  and  one  of  Admiral 
Coligny^s  best  warriors,  was  the  arm  used  by  Calvin  to  stir 
up  France  at  the'  beginning  of  the  twenty-two  years  of  re- 
l^ligious  wars  which  were  on  the  eve  of  an  outbreak.  This 
preacher  of  the  reformed  faith  was  one  of  those  secret  wheels 
which  may  best  explain  the  immense  spread  of  the  Keforma- 
tion. 

Chaudieu  led  Christophe  down  to  the  edge  of  the  water 
by  an  underground  passage  like  that  of  the  Arche  Marion, 
filled  in  some  ten  years  since.  This  tunnel  between  the  house 
of  Lecamus  and  that  next  it  ran  under  the  Rue  de  la  Vieille- 
Pelleterie,  and  was  known  as  le  Pont  aux  Fourreurs.  It  was 
used  by  the  dyers  of  the  Cite  as  a  way  down  to  the  river  to 
wash  their  thread,  silk,  and  materials.  A  little  boat  lay 
there,  held  and  rowed  by  one  man.  In  the  bows  sat  a  stranger, 
a  small  man,  and  very  simply  dressed.  In  an  instant  the  boat 
was  in  the  middle  of  the  river,  and  the  boatman  steered  it 
under  one  of  the  wooden  arches  of  the  Pont  au  Change,  where 
he  quickly  secured  it  to  an  iron  ring.  No  one  had  said  a 
word. 

*'Here  we  may  talk  in  safety,  there  are  neither  spies  nor 
traitors,"  said  Chaudieu  to  the  two  others.  "Are  you  filled 
with  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  that  should  animate  a  martyr? 
Are  you  ready  to  suffer  all  things  for  our  holy  Cause?  Do 
you  fear  the  torments  endured  by  the  late  King's  tailor,  and 
the  Councillor  du  Bourg,  which  of  a  truth  await  us  all?" 
He  spoke  to  Christophe,  looking  at  him  with  a  radiant  face. 

"I  will  testify  to  the  Gospel,"  replied  Christophe  simply, 
looking  up  at  the  windows  of  the  back  shop. 

The  familiar  lamp  standing  on  a  table,  where  his  father 
was  no  doubt  balancing  his  books,  reminded  him  by  its  mild 
beam  of  the  peaceful  life  and  family  joys  he  was  renouncing. 
It  was  a  brief  but  complete  vision.  The  young  man's  fancy 
took  in  the  homely  harmony  of  the  whole  scene — the  places 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  55 

where  he  had  spent  his  happy  childhood,  where  Babette  Lal- 
lier  lived,  his  future  wife,  where  everything  promised  him 
a  calm  and  busy  life ;  he  saw  the  past,  he  saw  the  future,  and 
he  sacrificed  it  all.    At  any  rate,  he  staked  it. 

Such  were  men  in  those  days. 

"We  need  say  no  more,"  cried  the  impetuous  boatman. 
"We  know  him  for  one  of  the  saints.  If  the  Scotchman  had 
not  dealt  the  blow,  he  would  have  killed  the  infamous 
Minard." 

"Yes,"  said  Lecamus,  "my  life  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
brethren,  and  I  devote  it  with  joy  for  the  success  of  the 
Eeformation.  I  have  thought  of  it  all  seriously.  I  know 
what  we  are  doing  for  the  joy  of  the  nations.  In  two  words, 
the  Papacy  makes  for  celibacy,  the  Reformation  makes  foi 
the  family.  It  is  time  to  purge  France  of  its  monks,  to 
restore  their  possessions  to  the  Crown,  which  will  sell  them 
sooner  or  later  to  the  middle  classes.  Let  us  show  that  we 
can  die  for  our  children,  and  to"  make  our  families  free  and 
happy !" 

The  young  enthusiast's  face,  with  Chaudieu's,  the  boat- 
man's, and  that  of  the  stranger  seated  in  the  bows,  formed 
a  picture  that  deserves  to  be  described,  all  the  more  so  be- 
cause such  a  description  entails  the  whole  history  of  that 
epoch,  if  it  be  true  that  it  is  given  to  some  men  to  sum  up 
in  themselves  the  spirit  of  their  age. 

Eeligious  reform,  attempted  in  Germany  by  Luther,  in 
Scotland  by  John  Knox,  and  in  France  by  Calvin,  found 
partisans  chiefly  among  those  of  the  lower  classes  who  had 
begun  to  think.  The  great  nobles  encouraged  the  movement 
only  to  serve  other  interests  quite  foreign  to  the  religious 
question.  These  parties  were  joined  by  adventurers,  by  gen- 
tlemen who  had  lost  all,  by  youngsters  to  whom  every  form 
of  excitement  was  acceptable.  But  among  the  artisans  and 
men  employed  in  trade,  faith  was  genuine,  and  founded  on 
intelligent  interests.  The  poorer  nations  at  once  gave  their 
adherence  to  a  religion  which  brought  the  property  of  the 
Church  back  to  the  State,  which  suppressed  the  convents, 


86  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

and  deprived  the  dignitaries  of  the  Church  of  their  enormous 
revenues.  Everybody  in  trade  calculated  the  profits  from 
this  religious  transaction,  and  devoted  themselves  to  it  body, 
soul,  and  purse;  and  among  the  youth  of  the  French  citizen 
class,  the  new  preaching  met  that  noble  disposition  for  self- 
sacrifice  of  every  kind  which  animates  the  young  to  whomi 
egoism  is  unknown.  ! 

Eminent  men,  penetrating  minds,  such  as  are  always  to 
be  found  among  the  masses,  foresaw  the  Republic  in  the 
Reformation,  and  hoped  to  establish  throughout  Europe  a 
form  of  government  like  that  of  the  United  Netherlands, 
which  at  last  triumphed  over  the  greatest  power  of  the  time — 
Spain,  ruled  by  Philip  II.,  and  represented  in  the  Low  Coun- 
tries by  the  Duke  of  Alva.  Jean  Hotoman  was  at  that  time 
planning  the  famous  book  in  which  this  scheme  is  set  forth, 
which  diffused  through  France  the  leaven  of  these  ideas, 
stirred  up  once  more  by  the  League,  subdued  by  Richelieu, 
and  afterwards  by  Louis  XIV.,  to  reappear  with  the  Econo- 
mists and  the  Encyclopedists  under  Louis  XV.,  and  burst 
into  life  under  Louis  XVI.;  ideas  which  were  always  ap- 
proved by  the  younger  branches,  by  the  House  of  Orleans 
in  1789,  as  by  the  House  of  Bourbon  in  1589. 

The  questioning  spirit  is  the  rebellious  spirit.  A  rebellion 
is  always  either  a  cloak  to  hide  a  prince,  or  the  swaddling 
wrapper  of  a  new  rule.  The  House  of  Bourbon,  a  younger 
branch  than  the  Valois,  was  busy  at  the  bottom  of  the 
Reformation.  At  the  moment  when  the  little  boat  lay  moored 
under  the  arch  of  the  Pont  au  Change,  the  question  was 
further  complicated  by  the  ambition  of  the  Guises,  the  rivals 
of  the  Bourbons.  Indeed,  the  Crown  as  represented  by* 
Catherine  de'  Medici  could,  for  thirty  years,  hold  its  own  in; 
the  strife  by  setting  these  two  factions  against  each  other; 
whereas  later,  instead  of  being  clutched  at  by  many  hands, 
the  Crown  stood  face  to  face  with  the  people  without  a  barrier 
between ;  for  Richelieu  and  Louis  XIV.  had  broken  down  the 
nobility,  and  Louis  XV.  had  overthrown  the  Parlements. 
Now  a  king  alone  face  to  face  with  a  nation,  as  Louis  XVI. 
was,  must  inevitably  succumb. . 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  57 

Christophe  Lecamus  was  very  typical  of  the  ardent  and 
devoted  sons  of  the  people.  His  pale  complexion  had  that 
warm  burnt  hue  which  is  seen  in  some  fair  people;  his  hair 
was  of  a  coppery  yellow;  his  eyes  were  bluish-gray,  and 
sparkled  brightly.  In  them  alone  was  his  noble  soul  visible, 
for  his  clumsy  features  did  not  disguise  the  somewhat  tri- 
angular shape  of  a  plain  face  by  lending  it  the  look  of 
dignity  which  a  man  of  rank  can  assume,  and  his  forehead 
was  low,  and  characteristic  only  of  great  energy.  His  vitality 
seemed  to  be  seated  no  lower  down  than  his  chest,  which 
was  somewhat  hollow.  Sinewy,  rather  than  muscular,  Chris- 
tophe was  of  tough  texture,  lean  but  wiry.  His  sharp  nose 
showed  homely  cunning,  and  his  countenance  revealed  in- 
telligence of  the  kind  that  acts  wisely  on  one  point  of  a  circle, 
but  has  not  the  power  of  commanding  the  whole  circumfer- 
ence. His  eyes,  set  under  brows  that  projected  like  a  pent- 
house, and  faintly  outlined  with  light  down,  were  surrounded 
with  broad  light-blue  circles,  with  a  sheeny  white  patch  at 
the  root  of  the  nose,  almost  always  a  sign  of  great  excitability. 
Christophe  was  of  the  people — the  race  that  fights  and  allows 
itself  to  be  deceived;  intelligent  enough  to  understand  and 
to  serve  an  idea,  too  noble  to  take  advantage  of  it,  too  mag- 
nanimous to  sell  himself. 

By  the  side  of  old  Lecamus'  only  son,  Chaudieu,  the  ardent 
minister,  lean  from  watchfulness,  with  brown  hair,  a  yellow 
skin,  a  contumacious  brow,  an  eloquent  mouth,  fiery  hazel 
eyes,  and  a  short  rounded  chin,  symbolized  that  Christian 
zeal  which  gave  the  Reformation  so  many  fanatical  and 
earnest  preachers,  whose  spirit  and  boldness  fired  whole  com- 
munities. This  aide-de-camp  of  Calvin  and  Theodore  de 
Beze  contrasted  well  with  the  furrier's  son.  He  represented 
the  living  cause  of  which  Christophe  was  the  effect.  You 
could  not  have  conceived  of  the  active  firebrand  of  the  popular 
machine  under  any  other  aspect. 

The  boatman,  an  impetuous  creature,  tanned  by  the  open 
air,  the  dews  of  night,  and  the  heats  of  the  day,  with  firmly 
set  lips,  quick  motions,  a  hungry,  tawny  eye  like  a  vulture's. 


58  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

and  crisp  black  hair,  was  the  characteristic  adventurer  who 
risks  his  all  in  an  undertaking  as  a.  gambler  stakes  his  whole 
fortune  on  a  card.  Everything  in  the  man  spoke  of  terrible 
passions  and  a  daring  that  would  flinch  at  nothing.  His 
quivering  muscles  were  as  able  to  keep  silence  as  to  speak. 
His  look  was  assertive  rather  than  noble.  His  nose,  upturned 
but  narrow,  scented  battle.  He  seemed  active  and  adroit. 
In  any  age  you  would  have  known  him  for  a  party  leader. 
He  might  have  been  Pizarro,  Hernando  Cortez^  or  Morgan^ 
the  Destroyer  if  there  had  been  no  Keformation — a  doer  of 
violent  deeds. 

The  stranger  who  sat  on  a  seat,  wrapped  in  his  cloak,  evi- 
dently belonged  to  the  highest  social  rank.  The  fineness  of 
his  linen,  the  cut,  material,  and  perfume  of  his  raiment,  the 
make  and  texture  of  his  gloves,  showed  a  man  of  the  Court, 
as  his  attitude,  his  haughtiness,  his  cool  demeanor,  and  his 
flashing  eye  revealed  a  man  of  war.  His  appearance  was  at 
first  somewhat  alarming,  and  inspired  respect.  We  respect 
a  man  who  respects  himself.  Though  short  and  hunchbacked, 
his  manner  made  good  all  the  defects  of  his  figure.  The  ice 
once  broken,  he  had  the  cheerfulness  of  decisiveness  and  an 
indescribable  spirit  of  energy  which  made  him  attractive. 
He  had  the  blue  eyes  and  the  hooked  nose  of  the  House  of 
Navarre,  and  the  Spanish  look  of  the  marked  physiognomy 
that  was  characteristic  of  the  Bourbon  kings. 

With  three  words  the  scene  became  of  the  greatest  in- 
terest. 

"Well,  then,"  said  Chaudieu,  as  Christophe  Lecamus  made 
his  profession  of  faith,  "this  boatman  is  la  Eenaudie ;  and  this 
is  Monseigneur  the  Prince  de  Conde,"  he  added,  turning  to 
the  hunchback. 

Thus  the  four  men  were  representative  of  the  faith  of  thei 
people,  the  intellect  of  eloquence,  the  arm  of  the  soldier,  and 
Koyalty  cast  into  the  shade. 

"You  will  hear  what  we  require  of  you,"  the  minister  went 
on,  after  allowing  a  pause  for  the  young  man's  astonishment. 
"To  the  end  that  you  may  make  no  mistakes,  we  are  com- 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE*  MEDICI  59 

pelled  to  initiate  you  into  the  most  important  secrets  of  the 
Reformation/' 

The  Prince  and  la  Renaudie  assented  by  a  gesture,  when 
the  minister  ceased  speaking,  to  allow  the  Prince  to  say 
something  if  he  should  wish  it.  Like  all  men  of  rank  en- 
gaged in  conspiracies,  who  make  it  a  principle  not  to  appear 
before  some  critical  moment,  the  Prince  kept  silence.  Not 
from  cowardice:  at  such  junctures  he  was  the  soul  of  th^ 
scheme,  'shrank  from  no  danger,  and  risked  his  head;  bu6 
with  a  sort  of  royal  dignity,  he  left  the  explanation  of  tha 
enterprise  to  the  preacher,  and  was  content  to  study  the  new 
instrument  he  was  compelled  to  make  use  of. 

"My  son,"  said  Chaudieu  in  Huguenot  phraseology,  "we 
are  about  to  fight  the  first  battle  against  the  Roman  whore. 
In  a  few  days  our  soldiers  must  perish  at  the  stake,  or  the 
Guises  must  be  dead.  So,  ere  long,  the  King  and  the  two 
Queens  will  be  in  our  power.  This  is  the  first  appeal  to  arms 
by  our  religion  in  France,  and  France  will  not  lay  them  down 
till  she  has  conquered — it  is  of  the  nation  that  I  speak,  and 
not  of  the  kingdom.  Most  of  the  nobles  of  the  kingdom  see 
what  the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine  and  the  Duke  his  brother  are 
driving  at.  Under  pretence  of  defending  the  Catholic  faith, 
the  House  of  Lorraine  claims  the  Crown  of  France  as  its  in- 
heritance. It  leans  on  the  Church,  and  has  made  it  a  for- 
midable ally;  the  monks  are  its  supporters,  its  acolytes  and 
spies.  It  asserts  itself  as  a  protector  of  the  throne  it  hopes 
to  usurp,  of  the  Valois  whom  it  hopes  to  destroy. 

"We  have  decided  to  rise  up  in  arms,  and  it  is  because  the 
liberties  of  the  people  are  threatened  as  well  as  the  interests 
of  the  nobility.  We  must  stifle  in  its  infancy  a  faction  as 
atrocious  as  that  of  the  Bourguignons,  who  of  old  put  Paris 
and  France  to  fire  and  sword.  A  Louis  XL  was  needed  to 
end  the  quarrel  between  the  Burgundians  and  the  Crown, 
but  now  a  Prince  of  Conde  will  prevent  the  Lorraines  from' 
going  too  far.  This  is  not  a  civil  war ;  it  is  a  duel  between  the 
Guises  and  the  Reformation — a  duel  to  the  death !  We  will 
see  their  heads  low,  or  they  shall  crush  ours  V 


00  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

**Well  spoken !"  said  the  Prince. 

"In  these  circumstances,  Christophe/'  la  Renaudie  put  in, 
"we  must  neglect  no  means  of  strengthening  our  party — for 
there  is  a  party  on  the  side  of  the  Reformation,  the  party 
of  offended  rights,  of  the  nobles  who  are  sacrificed  to  the 
Guises,  of  the  old  army  leaders  so  shamefully  tricked  at  Fon- 
tainebleau,  whence  the  Cardinal  banished  them  by  erecting 
gibbets  to  hang  those  who  should  ask  the  King  for  the  price 
of  their  outfit  and  arrears  of  pay." 

"Yes,  my  son,"  said  Chaudieu,  seeing  some  signs  of  terror 
in  Christophe,  "that  is  what  requires  us  to  triumph  by  fight- 
ing instead  of  triumphing  by  conviction  and  martyrdom. 
The  Queen-mother  is  ready  to  enter  into  our  views ;  not  that 
she  is  prepared  to  abjure  the  Catholic  faith — she  has  not  got 
so  far  as  that,  but  she  may  perhaps  be  driven  to  it  by  our 
success.  Be  that  as  it  may,  humiliated  and  desperate  as  she  is 
at  seeing  the  power  she  had  hoped  to  wield  at  the  King's 
death  in  the  grasp  of  the  Guises,  and  alarmed  by  the  influence 
exerted  by  the  young  Queen  Marie,  who  is  their  niece  and 
partisan.  Queen  Catherine  will  be  inclined  to  lend  her  support 
to  the  princes  and  nobles  who  are  about  to  strike  a  blow  for 
her  deliverance.  At  this  moment,  though  apparently  devoted 
to  the  Guises,  she  hates  them,  longs  for  their  ruin,  and  will 
make  use  of  us  to  oppose  them;  but  Monseigneur  can  make 
use  of  her  to  oppose  all  the  others.  The  Queen-mother  will 
consent  to  all  we  propose.  We  have  the  Connetable  on  our 
side — Monseigneur  has  just  seen  him  at  Chantilly,  but  he  will 
not  stir  without  orders  from  his  superiors.  Being  Mon- 
seigneur's  uncle,  he  will  not  leave  us  in  the  lurch,  and  our 
generous  Prince  will  not  hesitate  to  rush  into  danger  to  enlist 
Anne  de  Montmorency. 

"Everything  is  ready;  and  we  have  cast  our  eyes  on  you 
to  communicate  to  Queen  Catherine  our  treaty  of  alliance, 
our  schemes  for  edicts,  and  the  basis  of  the  new  rule.  The 
Court  is  at  Blois.  Many  of  our  friends  are  there;  but  those 
are  our  future  chiefs — and,  like  Monseigneur,"  and  he  bowed 
to  the  Prince,  "they  must  never  be  suspected ;  we  must  sacri- 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  61 

fice  ourselves  for  them.  The  Queen-mother  and  our  friends 
are  under  such  close  espionage,  that  it  is  impossible  to  com- 
municate with  them  through  any  one  who  is  known,  or  of  any 
consequence.  Such  a  person  would  at  once  be  suspected,  and 
would  never  be  admitted  to  speak  with  Madame  Catherine. 
God  should  indeed  give  us  at  this  moment  the  shepherd  David 
with  his  sling  to  attack  Goliath  de  Guise.  Your  father — a 
good  Catholic,  more's  the  pity — is  furrier  to  the  two  Queens;' 
he  always  has  some  garment  or  trimming  in  hand  for  them; 
persuade  him  to  send  you  to  the  Court.  You  will  arouse  no 
suspicions,  and  will  not  compromise  Queen  Catherine.  Any 
one  of  our  leaders  might  lose  his  head  for  an  imprudence 
which  should  give  rise  to  a  suspicion  of  the  Queen-mother's 
connivance  with  us.  But  where  a  man  of  importance,  once 
caught  out,  gives  a  clue  to  suspicions,  a  nobody  like  you 
escapes  scot-free. — You  see !  The  Guises  have  so  many  spies, 
that  nowhere  but  in  the  middle  of  the  river  can  we  talk  with- 
out fear.  So  you,  my  son,  are  like  a  man  on  guard,  doomed 
to  die  at  his  post.  Understand,  if  you  are  taken,  you  are 
abandoned  by  us  all.  If  need  be,  we  shall  c&st  opprobrium 
and  disgrace  on  you.  If  we  shall  be  forced  to  it,  we  should 
declare  that  you  were  a  creature  of  the  Guises  whom  they 
sent  to  play  a  part  to  implicate  us.  So  what  we  ask  of  you 
is  entire  self-sacrifice. 

"If  you  perish,"  said  the  Prince  de  Conde,  "I  pledge  my 
word  as  a  gentleman  that  your  family  shall  be  a  sacred  trust 
to  the  House  of  Navarre;  I  will  bear  it  in  my  heart  and 
serve  it  in  every  way." 

"That  word,  my  Lord,  is  enough,"  replied  Christophe,  for- 
getting that  this  leader  of  faction  was  a  Gascon.  "We  live 
in  times  when  every  man,  prince  or  citizen,  must  do  his  duty.'* 

"That  is  a  true  Huguenot !  If  all  our  men  were  like  him," 
said  la  Renaudie,  laying  his  hand  on  Christophe's  shoulder, 
"we  should  have  won  by  to-morrow." 

"Young  man,"  said  the  Prince,  "I  meant  to  show  you  that 
while  Chaudieu  preaches  and  the  gentleman  bears  arms,  the 
prince  fights.  Thus,  in  so  fierce  a  game  every  stake  has  its 
value." 


62  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

"Listen,"  said  la  Kenaudie ;  "I  will  not  give  you  the  papers 
till  we  reach  Beaugency,  for  we  must  run  no  risks  on  the  road. 
You  will  find  me  on  the  quay  there;  my  face,  voice,  and 
clothes  will  be  so  different,  that  you  may  not  recognize  me. 
But  I  will  say  to  you,  'Are  you  a  Guepin  T  and  you  must  reply, 
*At  your  service.' — As  to  the  manner  of  proceeding,  I  will 
tell  you.  You  will  find  a  horse  at  la  Pinte  fleurie,  near  Saint- 
Germain  I'Auxerrois.  Ask  there  for  Jean  le  Breton,  who  will 
,take  you  to  the  stable  and  mount  you  on  a  nag  of  mine  known 
to  cover  thirty  leagues  in  eight  hours.  Leave  Paris  by  the 
Bussy  Gate.  Breton  has  a  pass  for  me;  take  it  for  yourself 
and  be  off,  riding  round  outside  the  towns.  You  should  reach 
Orleans  by  daybreak." 

"And  the  horse?"  asked  Lecamus. 

"He  will  hold  out  till  you  get  to  Orleans,"  replied  la 
Eenaudie.  "Leave  him  outside  the  suburb  of  Bannier,  for  the 
gates  are  well  guarded;  we  must  not  arouse  suspicion.  You, 
my  friend,  must  play  your  part  well.  You  must  make  up 
any  story  that  may  seem  to  you  best  to  enable  you  to  go  to  the 
third  house  on  your  left  on  entering  Orleans;  it  is  that  of 
one  Tourillon,  a  glover.  Knock  three  raps  on  the  door  and 
call  out,  *In  the  service  of  Messieurs  de  Guise !'  The  man 
affects  to  be  a  fanatical  Guisard;  we  four  only  know  that  he  is 
on  our  side.  He  will  find  you  a  boatman,  such  another  as 
himself  of  course,  but  devoted  to  our  cause.  Go  down  to  the 
river  at  once,  get  into  a  boat  painted  green  with  a  white 
border.  You  ought  to  be  at  Beaugency  by  noonday  to- 
morrow. There  I  will  put  you  in  the  way  of  getting  a  boat 
to  carry  you  down  to  Blois  without  running  any  danger. 
Our  enemies  the  Guises  do  not  command  the  Loire,  only  the 
river-ports. 

'TTou  may  thus  see  the  Queen  in  the  course  of  to-morrow 
or  of  the  next  day." 

"Your  words  are  graven  here,"  said  Christophe,  touching 
his  forehead. 

Chaudieu  embraced  his  son  with  religious  fervency;  he  w&6 
proud  of  him. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  63 

"The  Lord  protect  you  V  he  said,  pointing  to  the  sunset 
which  crimsoned  the  old  roofs  covered  with  shingles,  and 
shot  fiery  gleams  among  the  forest  of  beams  round  which 
the  waters  foamed. 

"You  are  of  the  stock  of  old  Jacques  Bonhomme,''  said 
la  Eenaudie  to  Christophe,  wringing  his  hand. 

"We  shall  meet  again.  Monsieur/'  said  the  Prince,  with  a 
gesture  of  infinite  graciousness,  almost  of  friendliness. 

With  a  stroke  of  the  oar,  la  Eenaudie  carried  the  young 
conspirator  back  to  the  steps  leading  up  to  the  house,  and 
the  boat  vanished  at  once  under  the  arches  of  the  Pont  au 
Change. 

Christophe  shook  the  iron  gate  that  closed  the  entrance 
from  the  river-side  and  called  out;  Mademoiselle  Lecamus 
heard  him,  opened  one  of  the  windows  of  the  back-shop,  and 
asked  how  he  came  there.  Christophe  replied  that  he  was 
half-frozen,  and  that  she  must  first  let  him  in. 

"Young  master,"  said  la  Bourguignonne,  "you  went  out 
by  the  street  door  and  come  in  by  the  river-gate?  Your 
father  will  be  in  a  pretty  rage." 

Christophe,  bewildered  by  the  secret  conference  which  had 
brought  him  into  contact  with  the  Prince  de  Conde,  la 
Eenaudie,  and  Chaudieu,  and  even  more  agitated  by  the 
expected  turmoil  of  an  imminent  civil  war,  made  no  reply; 
he  hurried  up  from  the  kitchen  to  the  back-shop.  There,  on 
seeing  him,  his  mother,  who  was  a  bigoted  old  Catholic,  could 
not  contain  herself. 

"I  will  wager,"  she  broke  out,  ^^that  the  three  men  you  were 
talking  to  were  ref " 

"Silence,  wife,"  said  the  prudent  old  man,  whose  white 
head  was  bent  over  a  book.  "Now,  my  lazy  oafs,"  he  went 
on  to  three  boys  who  had  long  since  finished  supper,  "what 
are  you  waiting  for  to  take  you  to  bed?  It  is  eight  o'clock. 
You  must  be  up  by  five  in  the  morning.  And  first  you  have 
the  President  de  Thou's  robes  and  cap  to  carry  home.  Go  all 
three  together,  and  carry  sticks  and  rapiers.  If  you  meet  any 
more  ne'er-do-weels  of  your  own  kidney,  at  any  rate  there 
will  be  three  of  you/' 


64  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

"And  are  we  to  carry  the  ermine  surcoat  ordered  by  the 
young  Queen,  which  is  to  be  delivered  at  the  Hotel  de  Sois- 
sons,  from  whence  there  is  an  express  to  Blois  and  to  the 
Queen- mother  ?"  asked  one  of  the  lads. 

"2^0,"  said  the  Syndic;  "Queen  Catherine's  account 
amounts  to  three  thousand  crowns,  and  I  must  get  the  money. 
I  think  I  will  go  to  Blois  myself." 

"I  should  not  think  of  allowing  you,  at  your  age,  father, 
and  in  such  times  as  these,  to  expose  yourself  on  the  high- 
roads. I  am  two-and-twenty ;  you  may  send  me  on  this  er- 
rand," said  Christophe,  with  an  eye  on  a  box  which  he  had  no 
doubt  contained  the  surcoat. 

"Are  you  glued  to  the  bench  ?"  cried  the  old  man  to  the  ap- 
prentices, who  hastily  took  up  their  rapiers  and  capes,  and 
Monsieur  de  Thou's  fur  gown. 

This  illustrious  man  was  to  be  received  on  the  morrow 
by  the  Parlement  as  their  President ;  he  had  just  signed  the 
death-warrant  of  the  Councillor  du  Bourg,  and  was  fated, 
before  the  year  was  out,  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the  Prince  de 
Conde. 

"La  Bourguignonne,"  said  the  old  man,  "go  and  ask  my 
neighbor  Lallier  if  he  will  sup  with  us  this  evening,  furnish- 
ing the  wine ;  we  will  give  the  meal. — And,  above  all,  tell  him 
to  bring  his  daughter." 

The  Syndic  of  the  Guild  of  Furriers  was  a  handsome  old 
man  of  sixty,  with  white  hair  and  a  broad  high  forehead.  As 
furrier  to  the  Court  for  forty  years  past,  he  had  witnessed 
all  the  revolutions  in  the  reign  of  Francis  I.,  and  had  re- 
tained his  royal  patent  in  spite  of  feminine  rivalries.  He  had 
seen  the  arrival  at  Court  of  Catherine  de'  Medici,  then  but 
just  fifteen;  he  had  seen  her  succumb  to  the  Duchesse 
d'Etampes,  her  father-in-law's  mistress,  and  to  the  Duchesse 
de  Valentinois,  mistress  to  the  late  King,  her  husband.  But 
through  all  these  changes  the  furrier  had  got  into  no  diffi- 
culties, though  the  Court  purveyors  often  fell  into  disgrace 
with  the  ladies  they  served.    His  prudence  was  as  great  as 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  65 

his  wealth.  He  maintained  an  attitude  of  excessive  hu- 
mility.  Pride  had  never  caught  him  in  its  snares.  The  man 
was  so  modest,  so  meek,  so  obliging,  so  poor — at  Court  and 
in  the  presence  of  queens,  princesses,  and  favorites — that  his 
servility  had  saved  his  shop-sign. 

Such  a  line  of  policy  betrayed,  of  course,  a  cunning  and 
clear-sighted  man.  Humble  as  he  was  to  the  outer  world, 
at  home  he  was  a  despot.  He  was  the  unquestioned  master 
in  his  own  house.  He  was  highly  respected  by  his  fellow 
merchants  and  derived  immense  consideration  from  his  long 
tenure  of  the  first  place  in  business.  Indeed,  he  was  gladly 
helpful  to  others;  and  among  the  services  he  had  done,  the 
most  important  perhaps  was  the  support  he  had  long  afforded 
to  the  most  famous  surgeon  of  the  sixteenth  century — Am- 
broise  Pare,  who  owed  it  to  Lecamus  that  he  could  pursue  his 
studies.  In  all  the  disputes  that  arose  between  the  merchants 
of  the  guild,  Lecamus  was  for  conciliatory  measures.  Thus 
general  esteem  had  confirmed  his  supremacy  among  his 
equals,  while  his  assumed  character  had  preserved  him  the 
favor  of  the  Court. 

Having,  for  political  reasons,  manoeuvred  in  his  parish  for 
the  glory  of  his  trade,  he  did  what  was  needful  to  keep  him- 
self in  a  sufficient  odor  of  sanctity  with  the  priest  of  the 
Church  of  Saint-Pierre  aux  Boeufs,  who  regarded  him  as  one 
of  the  men  most  devoted  in  all  Paris  to  the  Catholic  faith. 
Consequently,  when  the  States- General  were  convoked,  Le- 
camus was  unanimously  elected  to  represent  the  third  estate 
by  the  influence  of  the  priests,  which  was  at  that  time  enor- 
mous in  Paris. 

This  old  man  was  one  of  those  deep  and  silent  ambitious 
men  who  for  fifty  years  are  submissive  to  everybody  in  turn, 
creeping  up  from  place  to  place,  no  one  knowing  how,  till  they 
■are  seen  peacefully  seated  in  a  position  which  no  one,  not 
even  the  boldest,  would  have  dared  to  admit  was  the  goal  of 
his  ambition  at  the  beginning  of  his  life — so  long  was  the 
climb,  so  many  gulfs  were  there  to  leap,  into  which  he  might 
fall !    Lecamus,  who  had  hidden  away  a  large  fortune,  would 


eS  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

run  no  risks,  and  was  planning  a  splendid  future  for  his  son. 
Instead  of  that  personal  ambition  which  often  sacrifices  the 
future  to  the  present,  he  had  family  ambition,  a  feeling  that 
seems  lost  in  these  days,  smothered  by  the  stupid  regulation 
of  inheritance  by  law.  Lecamus  foresaw  himself  President 
,Oif  the  Paris  Parlement  in  the  person  of  his  grandson. 

Christophe,  the  godson  of  the  great  historian  de  Thou,  had 
received  an  excellent  education,  but  it  had  led  him  to  scepti- 
cism and  inquiry,  which  indeed  were  increasing  apace  among 
the  students  and  Faculties  of  the  University.  Christophe 
was  at  present  studying  for  the  bar,  the  first  step  to  a 
judgeship.  The  old  furrier  pretended  to  be  undecided  as 
to  his  son's  career;  sometimes  he  would  make  Christophe 
his  successor,  and  sometimes  he  would  have  him  a  pleader; 
but  in  his  heart  he  longed  to  see  this  son  in  the  seat  of  a 
Councillor  of  the  Parlement.  The  furrier  longed  to  place  the 
house  of  Lecamus  on  a  par  with  the  old  and  honored  families 
of  Paris  citizens  which  had  produced  a  Pasquier,  a  Mole^,  a 
Miron,  a  Seguier,  Lamoignon,  du  Tillet,  Lecoigneux,  Lesca- 
lopier,  the  Goix,  the  Arnaulds, — all  the  famous  sheriffs  and 
high-provosts  of  corporations  who  had  rallied  to  defend  the 
throne. 

To  the  end  that  Christophe  might  in  that  day  do  credit 
to  his  rank,  he  wanted  him  to  marry  the  daughter  of  the  rich- 
est goldsmith  in  the  Cite,  his  neighbor  Lallier,  whose  nephew, 
at  a  later  day,  presented  the  keys  of  Paris  to  Henry  TV.  The 
most  deeply  rooted  purpose  in  the  good  man's  heart  was  to 
spend  half  his  own  fortune  and  half  of  Lallieris  in  the  pur- 
chase of  a  lordly  estate,  a  long  and  difficult  matter  in  those 
days. 

'  But  he  was  too  deep  a  schemer,  and  knew  the  times  too 
well,  to  overlook  the  great  movements  that  were  being 
hatched;  he  saw  plainly,  and  saw  truly,  when  he  looked  for-, 
ward  to  the  division  of  the  kingdom  into  two  camps.  The 
useless  executions  on  the  Place  de  I'Estrapade,  that  of  Henri 
II.'s  tailor,  and  that,  still  more  recent,  of  the  Councillor 
Azine  du   Bourg,   besides  the  connivance   of  the   reigning 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  67 

favorite  in  the  time  of  Francis  I.,  and  of  many  nobles  now, 
at  the  progress  of  reform,  all  were  alarming  indications. 
The  furrier  was  determined,  come  what  might,  to  remain 
faithful  to  the  Church,  the  Monarchy,  and  the  Parlement, 
but  he  was  secretly  well  content  that  his  son  should  join 
the  Eeformation.  He  knew  that  he  had  wealth  enough  to 
ransom  Christophe  if  the  lad  should  ever  compromise  himself 
seriously;  and  then,  if  France  should  turn  Calvinist,  his  son 
could  save  the  family  in  any  furious  outbreaks  in  the  capital 
such  as  the  citizens  could  vividly  remember,  and  as  would 
recur  again  and  again  through  four  reigns. 

Like  Louis  XL,  the  old  furrier  never  confessed  these 
thoughts  even  to  himself ;  his  cunning  completely  deceived  his 
wife  and  his  son.  For  many  a  day  this  solemn  personage  had 
been  the  recognized  head  of  the  most  populous  quarter  of 
Paris — the  heart  of  the  city — bearing  the  title  of  Quartenier, 
which  became  notorious  fifteen  years  later.  Clothed  in  cloth, 
like  every  prudent  citizen  who  obeyed  the  sumptuary  laws. 
Master  Lecamus — the  Sieur  Lecamus,  a  title  he  held  in 
virtue  of  an  edict  of  Charles  V.  permitting  the  citizens  of 
Paris  to  purchase  Seigneuries,  and  their  wives  to  assume  the 
fine  title  of  demoiselle  or  mistress — wore  no  gold  chain,  no 
silk;  only  a  stout  doublet  with  large  buttons  of  blackened 
silver,  wrinkled  hose  drawn  up  above  his  knee,  and  leather 
shoes  with  buckles.  His  shirt,  of  fine  linen,  was  pulled  out, 
in  the  fashion  of  the  time,  into  full  puffs  through  his  half- 
buttoned  waistcoat  and  slashed  trunks. 

Though  the  full  light  of  the  lamp  fell  on  the  old  man's 
broad  and  handsome  head,  Christophe  had  no  inkling  of 
the  thoughts  hidden  behind  that  rich  Dutch-looking  com- 
plexion ;  still  he  understood  that  his  old  father  meant  to  take 
some  advantage  of  his  affection  for  pretty  Babette  Lallier. 
And  Christophe,  as  a  man  who  had  laid  his  own  schemes, 
smiled  sadly  when  he  heard  the  invitation  sent  to  his  fair 
mistress. 

As  soon  as  la  Bourguignonne  and  the  apprentices  were 
gone,  old  Lecamus  looked  at  his  wife  with  an  expression  that 
fully  showed  his  firm  and  resolute  temper. 


68  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

*^ou  will  never  :est  till  you  have  got  the  boy  hanged  with 
your  damned  tongue !"  said  he  in  stern  tones. 

"I  would  rather  see  him  hanged,  but  saved,  than  alive  and 
a  Huguenot,"  was  the  gloomy  reply.  "To  think  that  the  child 
I  bore  within  me  for  nine  months  should  not  be  a  good 
Catholic,  but  hanker  after  the  heresies  of  Colas — that  he 
must  spend  all  eternity  in  hell "  and  she  began  to  cry, 

'TTou  old  fool !"  said  the  furrier,  "then  give  him  a  chance 
of  life,  if  only  to  convert  him!  Why,  you  said  a  thing, 
oefore  the  apprentices,  which  might  set  our  house  on  fire, 
and  roast  us  all  in  it  like  fleas  in  straw." 

The  mother  crossed  herself,  but  said  nothing. 

"As  for  you,"  said  the  good  man,  with  a  scrutinizing 
look  at  his  son,  "tell  me  what  you  were  doing  out  there 

on  the  water  with Come  close  to  me  while  I  speak  to 

you,"  he  added,  seizing  his  son  by  the  arm,  and  drawing  him 
close  to  him  while  he  whispered  in  the  lad's  ear — "with  the 
Prince  de  Conde."  Christophe  started.  "Do  you  suppose 
that  the  Court  furrier  does  not  know  all  their  faces?  And 
do  you  fancy  that  I  am  not  aware  of  what  is  going  on? 
Monseigneur  the  Grand  Master  has  ordered  out  troops  to 
Amboise.  And  when  troops  are  removed  from  Paris  to  Am- 
boise  while  the  Court  is  at  Blois,  when  they  are  marched 
by  way  of  Chartres  and  Vendome  instead  of  by  Orleans,  the 
meaning  is  pretty  clear,  heh?     Trouble  is  brewing. 

"If  the  Queens  want  their  surcoats,  they  will  send  for 
them.  The  Prince  de  Conde  may  be  intending  to  kill  Mes- 
sieurs de  Guise,  who  on  their  part  mean  to  get  rid  of  him 
perhaps.  Of  what  use  can  a  furrier's  son  be  in  such  a  broil  ? 
When  you  are  married,  when  you  are  a  pleader  in  the  Parle- 
Tient,  you  will  be  as  cautious  as  your  father.  A  furrier's 
son  has  no  business  to  be  of  the  new  religion  till  all  the 
•rest  of  the  world  is.  I  say  nothing  against  the  Reformers; 
iit  is  no  business  of  mine ;  but  the  Court  is  Catholic,  the  two 
Queens  are  Catholics,  the  Parlement  is  Catholic;  we  serve 
them  with  furs,  and  we  must  be  Catholic. 

*^"ou  do  not  stir  from  here,  Christophe,  or  I  will  place 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  89 

you  with  your  godfather  the  President  de  Thou,  who  will 
keep  you  at  it,  blackening  paper  night  and  day,  instead  of 
leaving  you  to  blacken  your  soul  in  the  hell-broth  of  these 
damned  Genevese." 

"Father,"  said  Christophe,  leaning  on  the  back  of  the  old 
man's  chair,  '"send  me  off  to  Blois  with  Queen  Marie's  sur- 
coat,  and  to  ask  for  the  money,  or  I  am  a  lost  man.  And 
you  love  me " 

"Lost!"  echoed  his  father,  without  any  sign  of  surprise. 
"If  you  stay  here,  you  will  not  be  lost.  I  shall  know  where 
to  find  you." 

"I  shall  be  killed." 

"Why?" 

"The  most  zealous  Huguenots  have  cast  their  eyes  on  me 
to  serve  them  in  a  certain  matter,  and  if  I  fail  to  do  what 
I  have  just  promised,  they  will  kill  me  in  the  street,  in  the 
face  of  day,  here,  as  Minard  was  killed.  But  if  you  send  me 
to  the  Court  on  business  of  your  own,  I  shall  probably  be 
able  to  justify  my  action  to  both  parties.  Either  I  shall 
succeed  for  them  without  running  any  risk,  and  so  gain  a 
good  position  jn  the  party ;  or,  if  the  danger  is  too  great,  I 
can  do  your  business  only." 

The  old  man  started  to  his  feet  as  if  his  seat  were  of  red- 
hot  iron. 

"Wife,"  said  he,  **leave  us,  and  see  that  no  one  intrudes  on 
Christophe  and  me." 

When  Mistress  Lecamus  had  left  the  room,  the  furrier 
took  his  son  by  a  button  and  led  him  to  the  corner  of  the 
room  which  formed  the  angle  towards  the  bridge. 

■'Christophe,"  said  he,  quite  into  his  son's  ear,  as  he  had 
just  now  spoken  of  the  Prince  de  Conde,  "be  a  Huguenot 
if  that  is  your  pet  vice,  but  with  prudence,  in  your  secret 
heart,  and  not  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  pointed  at  by  every  one 
'in  the  neighborhood.  What  you  have  just  now  told  me  shows 
me  what  confidence  the  leaders  have  in  you. — What  are  you 
to  do  at  the  Court?" 

"I  cannot  tell  you,"  said  Christophe;  "I  do  not  quite 
know  that  myself  yet.*' 


70  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

"H'm,  h'm/'  said  the  old  man,  looking  at  the  lad,  ''the 
young  rascal  wants  to  hoodwink  his  father.  He  will  go  far ! 
— Well,  well,"  he  went  on,  in  an  undertone,  "you  are  not 
going  to  Blois  to  make  overtures  to  the  Guises,  nor  to  the 
little  King  our  Sovereign,  nor  to  little  Queen  Mary.  All 
these  are  Catholics ;  but  I  could  swear  that  the  Italian  Queen 
owes  the  Scotch  woman  and  the  Lorraines  some  grudge:  I 
know  her.  She  has  been  dying  to  put  a  finger  in  the  pie. 
The  late  King  was  so  much  afraid  of  her  that,  like  the; 
jewelers,  he  used  diamond  to  cut  diamond,  one  woman 
against  another.  Hence  Queen  Catherine's  hatred  of  the 
poor  Duchesse  de  Valentinois,  from  whom  she  took  the  fine 
Chateau  of  Chenoneeaux.  But  for  Monsieur  le  Connetable, 
the  Duchess  would  have  had  her  neck  wrung  at  least 

"Hands  off,  my  boy !  Do  not  trust  yourself  within  reach 
of  the  Italian  woman,  whose  only  passions  are  in  her  head; 
a  bad  sort  that. — Ay,  the  business  you  are  sent  to  the  Court 
to  do  will  give  you  a  bad  headache,  I  fear,"  cried  the  father, 
seeing  that  Christophe  was  about  to  speak.  "My  boy,  I  have 
two  schemes  for  your  future  life;  you  will  not  spoil  them 
by  being  of  service  to  Queen  Catherine.  But,  for  God's  sake, 
keep  your  head  on  your  shoulders !  And  the  Guises  would 
cut  it  off  as  la  Bourguignonne  cuts  off  a  turnip,  for  the 
people  who  are  employing  you  would  throw  you  over  at 
once." 

"I  know  that,  father,"  said  Christophe, 

"And  you  are  so  bold  as  that !  You  know  it,  and  you  will 
risk  it?" 

"Yes,  father." 

"Why,  the  Devil's  in  it !"  cried  the  old  man,  hugging  his 
son,  "we  may  understand  each  other;  you  are  your  father's 
son. — My  boy,  you  will  be  a  credit  to  the  family,  and  your, 
old  father  may  be  plain  with  you,  I  see. — But  do  not  bef 
more  of  a  Huguenot  than  the  Messieurs  de  Coligny;  and  do' 
not  draw  your  sword.  You  are  to  be  a  man  of  the  pen; 
stick  to  your  part  as  a  sucking  lawyer. — Well,  tell  me  no 
more  till  you  have  succeeded.    If  I  hear  nothing  of  you  for 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDIOI  71 

four  days  after  you  reach  Blois,  that  silence  will  tell  me  that 
you  are  in  danger.  Then  the  old  man  will  follow  to  save 
the  young  one.  I  have  not  sold  furs  for  thirty  years  without 
knowing  the  seamy  side  of  a  Court  robe.  I  can  find  means 
of  opening  doors." 

Christophe  stared  with  amazement  at  hearing  his  father 
speak  thus ;  but  he  feared  some  parental  snare,  and  held  hia 
tongue. 

Then  he  said: 

"Very  well,  make  up  the  account;  write  a  letter  to  the 
Queen.  I  must  be  off  this  moment,  or  dreadful  things  will 
happen." 

"Be  off?    But  how?" 

"I  will  buy  a  horse. — ^Write,  for  God's  sake!'* 

"Here !  Mother !  Give  your  boy  some  money/'  the  furrier 
called  out  to  his  wife. 

She  came  in,  flew  to  her  chest,  and  gave  a  purse  to  Chris- 
tophe, who  excitedly  kissed  her. 

"The  account  was  ready,"  said  his  father;  "here  it  is.  I 
will  write  the  letter." 

Christophe  took  the  bill  and  put  it  in  his  pocket. 

"But  at  any  rate  you  will  sup  with  us,"  said  the  goodman. 
"In  this  extremity  you  and  the  Lallier  girl  must  exchange 
rings." 

"Well,  I  will  go  to  fetch  her,"  cried  Christophe. 

The  young  man  feared  some  indecision  in  his  father,  whose 
character  he  did  not  thoroughly  appreciate ;  he  went  up  to  his 
room,  dressed,  took  out  a  small  trunk,  stole  downstairs,  and 
placed  it  with  his  cloak  and  rapier  under  a  counter  in  the 
shop. 

"What  the  devil  are  you  about  ?"  asked  his  father,  hearing 
him  there. 

"I  do  not  want  any  one  to  see  my  preparations  for  leaving; 
I  have  put  everything  under  the  counter^"  he  whispered  in 
reply. 

"And  here  is  the  letter,"  said  his  father. 

Christophe  took  the  paper,  and  went  out  as  if  to  fetch  theif 
neighbor. 


72  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

A  few  moments  after  Christophe  had  gone  out,  old  Lallier 
and  his  daughter  came  in,  preceded  by  a  woman-servant 
carrying  three  bottles  of  old  wine. 

"Well,  and  where  is  Christophe?"  asked  the  furrier  and 
his  wife. 

"Christophe  ?"  said  Babette ;  "we  have  not  seen  him." 

"A  pretty  rogue  is  my  son !"  cried  Lecamus.  "He  trickaj 
me  as  if  I  had  no  beard.  Why,  old  gossip,  what  will  come 
to  us  ?  We  live  in  times  when  the  children  are  all  too  clever 
for  their  fathers !" 

"But  he  has  long  been  regarded  by  all  the  neighbors  as 
a  mad  follower  of  Colas,"  said  Lallier. 

"Defend  him  stoutly  on  that  score,"  said  the  furrier  to  the 
goldsmith.  "Youth  is  foolish,  and  runs  after  anything  new; 
but  Babette  will  keep  him  quiet,  she  is  even  newer  than 
Calvin." 

Babette  smiled.  She  truly  loved  Christophe,  was  affronted 
by  everything  that  was  ever  said  against  him.  She  was  a  girl 
of  the  good  old  middle-class  type,  brought  up  under  her 
mother's  eye,  for  she  had  never  left  her;  her  demeanor  was 
as  gentle  and  precise  as  her  features;  she  was  dressed  in 
stuff  of  harmonious  tones  of  gray ;  her  ruff,  plainly  pleated, 
was  a  contrast  by  its  whiteness  to  her  sober  gown;  on  her 
head  was  a  black  velvet  cap,  like  a  child's  hood  in  shape, 
but  trimmed,  on  each  side  of  her  face,  with  frills  and  ends 
of  tan-colored  gauze.  Though  she  was  fair-haired,  with  a 
white  skin,  she  seemed  cunning  and  crafty,  though  trying 
to  hide  her  wiliness  under  the  expression  of  a  simple  and 
honest  girl. 

As  long  as  the  two  women  remained  in  the  room,  coming 
to  and  fro  to  lay  the  cloth,  and  place  the  jugs,  the  large, 
pewter  dishes,  and  the  knives  and  forks,  the  goldsmith  and 
his  daughter,  the  furrier  and  his  wife,  sat  in  front  of  the 
high  chimney-place,  hung  with  red  serge  and  black  fringes, 
talking  of  nothing.  It  was  in  vain  that  Babette  asked 
where  Christophe  could  be;  the  young  Huguenot's  father 
and  mother  made  ambiguous  replies;  but  as  soon  as  the 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  73 

party  had  sat  down  to  their  meal,  and  the  two  maids  were 
in  the  kitchen,  Lecamus  said  to  his  future  daughter-in-law: 

"Christophe  is  gone  to  the  Court." 

"To  Blois !  What  a  journey  to  take  without  saying  good- 
bye to  me  !"  said  Babette. 

"He  was  in  a  great  hurry,"  said  his  old  mother. 

"Old  friend,"  said  the  furrier  to  Lallier,  taking  up  the 
thread  of  the  conversation,  "we  are  going  to  see  hot  work  in 
France;  the  Eeformers  are  astir." 

"If  they  win  the  day,  it  will  only  be  after  long  fighting, 
which  will  be  very  bad  for  trade,"  said  Lallier,  incapable 
of  looking  higher  than  the  commercial  point  of  view. 

"My  father,  who  had  seen  the  end  of  the  wars  between  the 
Bourguignons  and  the  Armagnacs,  told  me  that  our  family 
would  never  have  lived  through  them  if  one  of  his  grand- 
fathers— his  mother's  father — had  not  been  one  of  the  Goix, 
the  famous  butchers  at  the  Halle,  who  were  attached  to  the 
Bourguignons,  while  the  other,  a  Lecamus,  was  on  the  side 
of  the  Armagnacs;  they  pretended  to  be  ready  to  flay  each 
other  before  the  outer  world,  but  at  home  they  were  very  good 
friends.  So  we  will  try  to  save  Christophe.  Perhaps  a  time 
may  come  when  he  will  save  us." 

"You  are  a  cunning  dog,  neighbor,"  said  the  goldsmith. 

"No,"  replied  Lecamus.  "The  citizen  class  must  take 
care  of  itself,  the  populace  and  the  nobility  alike  owe  it  a 
grudge.  Everybody  is  afraid  of  the  middle  class  in  Paris 
excepting  the  King,  who  knows  us  to  be  his  friends." 

"You  who  know  so  much,  and  who  have  seen  so  much,'* 
said  Babette  timidly,  "pray  tell  me  what  it  is  that  the  Ee- 
formers want." 

"Ay,  tell  us  that,  neighbor!"  cried  the  goldsmith.  "1 
knew  the  late  King's  tailor,  and  I  always  took  him  to  be  a 
simple  soul,  with  no  great  genius ;  he  was  much  such  another 
as  you  are,  they  would  have  given  him  the  Host  without  re- 
quiring him  to  confess,  and  all  the  time  he  was  up  to  his 
eyes  in  this  new  religion. — He !  a  man  whose  ears  were  worth 
many   hundred   thousand   crowns.     He   must   have   known 


74  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

some  secrets  worth  "hearing  for  the  King  and  Madame  de 
Valentinois  to  be  present  when  he  was  tortured." 

"Ay!  and  terrible  secrets  too,"  said  the  furrier.  "The 
Eeformation,  my  friends,"  he  went  on,  in  a  low  voice,  "will 
give  the  Church  lands  back  to  the  citizen  class.  When  eccle- 
siastical privileges  are  annulled,  the  Reformers  mean  to  claim 
equality  of  taxation  for  the  nobles  and  the  middle  class,  and 
to  have  only  the  King  above  all  alike — if  indeed  they  have^ 
a  king  at  all." 

"What,  do  away  with  the  Throne  ?"  cried  Lallier. 

'^ell,  neighbor,"  said  Lecamus,  "in  the  Low  Countries 
the  citizens  govern  themselves  by  provosts  over  them,  who 
elect  a  temporary  chief." 

"God  bless  me!  Neighbor,  we  might  do  all  these  fine 
things,  and  still  be  Catholics,"  said  the  goldsmith. 

"We  are  too  old  to  see  the  triumph  of  the  middle  class  in 
Paris,  but  it  will  triumph,  neighbor,  all  in  good  time  !  Why, 
the  King  is  bound  to  rely  on  us  to  hold  his  own,  and  we 
have  always  been  well  paid  for  our  support.  And  the  last 
time  all  the  citizens  were  ennobled,  and  they  had  leave  to 
buy  manors,  and  take  the  names  of  their  estates  without  any 
special  letters  patent  from  the  King.  You  and  I,  for  in- 
stance, grandsons  of  the  Goix  in  the  female  line,  are  we  not 
as  good  as  many  a  nobleman?" 

This  speech  was  so  alarming  to  the  goldsmith  and  the 
two  women,  that  it  was  followed  by  a  long  silence.  The 
leaven  of  1789  was  already  germinating  in  the  blood  of 
Lecamus,  who  was  not  yet  so  old  but  that  he  lived  to  see  the 
daring  of  his  class  under  the  Ligue. 

"Is  business  pretty  firm  in  spite  of  all  this  turmoil?" 
Lallier  asked  the  furrier's  wife. 

"It  always  upsets  trade  a  little,"  said  she. 

"Yes,  and  so  I  have  a  great  mind  to  make  a  lawyer  of 
my  son,"  added  Lecamus.    "People  are  always  going  to  law."' 

The  conversation  then  dwelt  on  the  commonplace,  to  the 
goldsmith's  great  satisfaction,  for  he  did  not  like  political 
disturbances  or  over-boldness  of  thought. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  75 

The  banks  of  the  Loire,  from  Blois  as  far  as  Angers,  were 
always  greatly  favored  by  the  two  last  branches  of  the  Koyal 
Family  who  occupied  the  throne  before  the  advent  of  the 
Bourbons.  This  beautiful  valley  so  well  deserves  the  prefer- 
ence of  kings,  that  one  of  our  most  elegant  writers  describes 
it  as  follows : — "There  is  a  province  in  France  which  is  never 
sufficiently  admired.  As  fragrant  as  Italy,  as  flowery  as  the 
banks  of  the  Guadalquivir,  beautiful  besides  with  its  own 
peculiar  beauty.  Wholly  French,  it  has  always  been  French, 
unlike  our  Northern  provinces,  debased  by  Teutonic  in- 
fluence, or  our  Southern  provinces,  which  have  been  the  con- 
cubines of  the  Moors,  of  the  Spaniards,  of  every  nation  that 
has  coveted  them — this  pure,  chaste,  brave,  and  loyal  tract 
is  Touraine !  There  is  the  seat  of  historic  France.  Auvergne 
is  Auvergne,  Languedoc  is  Languedoc  and  nothing  more ;  but 
Touraine  is  France,  and  the  truly  national  river  to  us  is  the 
Loire  which  waters  Touraine.  We  need  not,  therefore,  be 
surprised  to  find  such  a  quantity  of  monuments  in  the  de- 
partments which  have  taken  their  names  from  that  of  the 
Loire  and  its  derivations.  At  every  step  in  that  land  of 
enchantment  we  come  upon  a  picture  of  which  the  foreground 
is  the  river,  or  some  calm  reach,  in  whose  liquid  depths  are 
mirrored  a  chateau,  with  its  turrets,  its  woods,  and  its  danc- 
ing springs.  It  was  only  natural  that  large  fortunes  should 
centre  round  spots  where  Eoyalty  preferred  to  live,  and 
where  it  so  long  held  its  Court,  and  that  distinguished  birth 
and  merit  should  crowd  thither  and  build  palaces  on  a  par 
with  Royalty  itself." 

Is  it  not  strange,  indeed,  that  our  sovereigns  should  never 
have  taken  the  advice  indirectly  given  them  by  Louis  XI., 
and  have  made  Tours  the  capital  of  the  kingdom?  Without 
any  very  great  expenditure,  the  Loire  might  have  been  navi- 
gable so  far  for  trading  vessels  and  light  ships  of  war.  There 
'the  seat  of  Government  would  have  been  safe  from  surprise 
and  high-handed  invasion.  There  the  strongholds  of  the 
north  would  not  have  needed  such  sums  for  their  fortifica- 
tionfi,  which  alone  have  cost  as  much  money  as  all  the  splenr 


78  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

dors  of  Versailles.  If  Louis  XIV.  had  listened  to  Vauban's 
advice,  and  had  his  palace  built  at  Mont-Louis,  between  the 
Loire  and  the  Cher,  perhaps  the  Eevolution  of  1789  would 
never  have  taken  place. 

So  these  fair  banks  bear,  at  various  spots,  clear  marks  of 
royal  favor.  The  chateaux  of  Chambord,  Blois,  Amboise, 
Chenonceaux,  Chaumont,  Plessis-les-Tours,  all  the  residences 
built  by  kings'  mistresses,  by  financiers,  and  noblemen,  at 
Veretz,  Azay-le-Kideau,  Usse,  Villandri,  Valengay,  Chante- 
loup,  and  Duretal,  some  of  which  have  disappeared,  though 
most  are  still  standing,  are  splendid  buildings,  full  of  the 
wonders  of  the  period  that  has  been  so  little  appreciated  by 
the  literary  sect  of  Mediaevalists. 

Of  all  these  chateaux,  that  of  Blois,  where  the  Court  was 
then  residing,  is  the  one  on  which  the  magnificence  of  the 
Houses  of  Orleans  and  of  Valois  has  most  splendidly  set  its 
stamp ;  and  it  is  the  most  curious  to  historians,  archaeologists, 
and  Catholics.  At  that  time  it  stood  quite  alone.  The  town, 
enclosed  in  strong  walls  with  towers,  lay  below  the  strong- 
hold, for  at  that  time  the  chateau  served  both  as  a  citadel  and 
as  a  country  residence.  Overlooking  the  town,  of  which  the 
houses,  then  as  now,  climb  the  hill  on  the  right  bank  of  the 
river,  their  blue  slate  roofs  in  close  array,  there  is  a  triangular 
plateau,  divided  by  a  stream,  now  unimportant  since  it  runs 
underground,  but  in  the  fifteenth  century,  as  historians  tell 
us,  flowing  at  the  bottom  of  a  rather  steep  ravine,  part  of 
which  remains  as  a  deep  hollow  way,  almost  a  precipice,  be- 
tween the  suburb  and  the  chateau. 

It  was  on  this  plateau,  with  a  slope  to  the  north  and  south, 
that  the  Comtes  de  Blois  built  themselves  a  "castel"  in  the 
architecture  of  the  twelfth  century,  where  the  notorious  Thi- 
bault  le  Tricheur,  Thibault  le  Vieux,  and  many  more  held 
a  court  that  became  famous.  In  those  days  of  pure  feudal 
rule,  when  the  King  was  no  more  than  inter  pares  primus 
(the  first  among  equals),  as  a  King  of  Poland  finely  ex- 
pressed it,  the  Counts  of  Champagne,  of  Blois,  and  of  Anjou, 
the  mere  Barons  of  Normandy,  and  the  Dukes  of  Brittany 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDIGI  77 

iived  in  the  style  of  sovereigns  and  gave  kings  to  the  proudest 
kingdoms.  The  Plantagenets  of  Anjou,  the  Lusignans  of 
Poitou,  the  Koberts  and  Williams  of  Normandy,  by  their  au- 
dacious courage  mingled  their  blood  with  royal  races,  and 
sometimes  a  simple  knight,  like  du  Glaicquin  (or  du  Gues- 
clin),  refused  royal  purple  and  preferred  the  Constable's 
sword. 

When  the  Crown  had  secured  Blois  as  a  royal  demesne, 
Louis  XII.,  who  took  a  fancy  to  the  place,  perhaps  to  get 
away  from  Plessis  and  its  sinister  associations,  built  on  to 
the  chateau,  at  an  angle,  so  as  to  face  east  and  west,  a  wing 
connecting  the  residence  of  the  Counts  of  Blois  with  the  older 
structure,  of  which  nothing  now  remains  but  the  immense 
hall  where  the  States-General  sat  under  Henri  III.  Francis 
I.,  before  he  fell  in  love  with  Chambord,  intended  to  finish 
the  chateau  by  building  on  the  other  two  sides  of  a  square; 
but  he  abandoned  Blois  for  Chambord,  and  erected  only  one 
wing,  which  in  his  time  and  in  that  of  his  grandsons  prac- 
tically constituted  the  chateau. 

This  third  building  of  Francis  I.'s  is  much  more  extensive 
and  more  highly  decorated  than  the  Louvre  de  Henri  II.,  as 
it  is  called.  It  is  one  of  the  most  fantastic  efforts  of  the 
architecture  of  the  Kenaissance.  Indeed,  at  a  time  when  a 
more  reserved  style  of  building  prevailed,  and  no  one  cared 
for  the  Middle  Ages,  a  time  when  literature  was  not  so  inti- 
mately allied  with  art  as  it  now  is,  la  Fontaine  wrote  of  the 
Chateau  of  Blois  in  his  characteristically  artless  language; 
"Looking  at  it  from  outside,  the  part  done  by  order  of 
Francis  I.  pleased  me  more  than  all  the  rest;  there  are  a 
number  of  little  windows,  little  balconies,  little  colonnades, 
little  ornaments,  not  regularly  ordered,  which  make  up  some- 
;fching  great  which  I  found  very  pleasing." 

Thus  the  Chateau  of  Blois  had  the  attraction  of  represent- 
ing three  different  kinds  of  architecture — three  periods,  three 
systems,  three  dynasties.  And  there  is  not,  perhaps,  any 
other  royal  residence  which  in  this  respect  can  compare  with 
it.    The  vast  building  shows,  in  one  enclosure,  in  one  court- 


78  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

yard,  a  complete  picture  of  that  great  product  of  national 
life  and  manners  which  Architecture  always  is. 

At  the  time  when  Christophe  was  bound  for  the  Court, 
that  portion  of  the  precincts  on  which  a  fourth  palace  now 
stands — the  wing  added  seventy  years  later,  during  his  exile, 
by  Gaston,  Louis  XIII.'s  rebellious  brother — was  laid  out 
in  pastures  and  terraced  gardens,  picturesquely  scattered 
among  the  foundation  stones  and  unfinished  towers  begun  byi 
Francis  I.  These  gardens  were  joined  by  a  bold  flying  bridge, 
— which  some  old  inhabitants  still  alive  saw  destroyed — ^to 
a  garden  on  the  other  side  of  the  chateau,  which  by  the  slope 
of  the  ground  lay  on  the  same  level.  The  gentlemen  attached 
to  Queen  Anne  de  Bretagne,  or  those  who  approached  her 
with  petitions  from  her  native  province,  to  discuss,  or  to 
inform  her  of  the  state  of  affairs  there,  were  wont  to  await 
her  pleasure  here,  her  lever,  or  the  hour  of  her  walking  out. 
Hence  history  has  handed  down  to  us  as  the  name  of  this 
pleasaunce  Le  Perchoir  aux  Bretons  (the  Breton's  Perch) ; 
it  now  is  an  orchard  belonging  to  some  private  citizen,  pro- 
jecting beyond  the  Place  des  Jesuites.  That  square  also  was 
then  included  in  the  domain  of  this  noble  residence  which  had 
its  upper  and  its  lower  gardens.  At  some  distance  from  the 
Place  des  Jesuites,  a  summer-house  may  still  be  seen  built 
by  Catherine  de'  Medici,  as  local  historians  tell  us,  to  accom- 
modate her  hot  baths.  This  statement  enables  us  to  trace 
the  very  irregular  arrangement  of  the  gardens  which  went 
up  and  down  hill,  following  the  undulations  of  the  soil;  the 
land  about  the  chateau  is  indeed  very  uneven,  a  fact  which 
added  to  its  strength,  and,  as  we  shall  see,  caused  the  diffi- 
culties of  the  Due  de  Guise. 

The  gardens  were  reached  by  corridors  and  terraces;  the 
chief  corridor  was  known  as  the  Galerie  des  Cerfs  (or  stags), 
on  account  of  its  decorations.  This  passage  led  to  a  magnifi- 
cent staircase,  which  undoubtedly  suggested  the  famous  dou- 
ble staircase  at  Chambord,  and  which  led  to  the  apartments 
on  each  floor. 

Though  la  Fontaine  preferred  the  ehSiteau  of  Francis  I. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  79 

to  that  of  Louis  XII.,  the  simplicity  of  the  Pere  du  Peuple 
may  perhaps  charm  the  genuine  artist,  much  as  he  may 
admire  the  splendor  of  the  more  chivalrous  king.  The 
elegance  of  the  two  staircases  which  lie  at  the  two  extremi- 
ties of  Louis  XII.'s  building,  the  quantity  of  fine  and  origi- 
nal carving,  of  which,  though  time  has  damiaged  them,  the 
remains  are  still  the  delight  of  antiquaries;  everything,  to 
the  almost  cloister-like  arrangement  of  the  rooms,  points 
to  very  simple  habits.  As  yet  the  Court  was  evidently  non-, 
existent,  or  had  not  attained  such  development  as  Francis 
I.  and  Catherine  de'  Medici  subsequently  gave  it,  to  the  great 
detriment  of  feudal  manners.  As  we  admire  the  brackets,, 
the  capitals  of  some  of  the  columns,  and  some  little  figures 
of  exquisite  delicacy,  it  is  impossible  not  to  fancy  that  Michel 
Colomb,  the  great  sculptor,  the  Michael  Angelo  of  Brittany, 
must  have  passed  that  way  to  do  his  Queen  Anne  a  pleasure, 
before  immortalizing  her  on  her  father's  tomb — the  last 
Duke  of  Brittany. 

Whatever  la  Fontaine  may  say,  nothing  can  be  more  stately 
than  the  residence  of  Francis,  the  magnificent  King.  Thanks 
to  I  know  not  what  coarse  indifference,  perhaps  to  utter 
forgetfulness,  the  rooms  occupied  by  Catherine  de'  Medici 
and  her  son  Francis  II.  still  remain  almost  in  their  original 
Btate.  The  historian  may  reanimate  them  with  the  tragical 
scenes  of  the  Eeformation,  of  which  the  struggle  of  the 
Guises  and  the  Bourbons  against  the  House  of  Valois  formed 
a  complicated  drama  played  out  on  this  spot. 

The  buildings  of  Francis  I.  quite  crush  the  simpler  resi- 
dence of  Louis  XII.  by  sheer  mass.  From  the  side  of  the 
lower  gardens,  that  is  to  say,  from  the  modern  Place  des 
Jesuites,  the  chateau  is  twice  as  lofty  as  from  the  side  towards 
the  inner  court.  The  ground  floor,  in  which  are  the  famous 
corridors,  is  the  second  floor  in  the  garden  front.  Thus  the 
first  floor,  where  Queen  Catherine  resided,  is  in  fact  the 
third,  and  the  royal  apartments  are  on  the  fourth  above  the 
lower  garden,  which  at  that  time  was  divided  from  the 
foundations  by  a  very  deep  moat.     Thus  the  chateau,  im- 


80  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

posing  as  it  is  from  the  court,  seems  quite  gigantic  when  seen 
from  the  Place  as  la  Fontaine  saw  it,  for  he  owns  that  he 
never  had  been  into  the  court  or  the  rooms.  From  the  Place 
des  Jesuites  every  detail  looks  small.  The  balconies  you  can 
walk  along,  the  colonnades  of  exquisite  workmanship,  the 
sculptured  windows — their  recesses  within,  as  large  as  small 
rooms,  and  used,  in  fact,  at  that  time  as  boudoirs — have 
a  general  effect  resembling  the  painted  fancies  of  operatic 
scenery  when  the  artist  represents  a  fairy  palace.  But  once 
inside  the  court,  the  infinite  delicacy  of  this  architectural 
ornamentation  is  displayed,  to  the  joy  of  the  amazed  spectator, 
though  the  stories  above  the  ground  floor  are,  even  there, 
as  high  as  the  Pavilion  de  I'Horloge  at  the  Tuileries. 

This  part  of  the  building,  where  Catherine  and  Mary 
Stuart  held  magnificent  court,  had  in  the  middle  of  the 
fagade  a  hexagonal  hollow  tower,  up  which  winds  a  stair- 
case in  stone,  an  arabesque  device  invented  by  giants  and 
executed  by  dwarfs  to  give  this  front  the  effect  of  a  dream. 
The  balustrade  of  the  stairs  rises  in  a  spiral  of  rectangular 
panels  composing  the  five  walls  of  the  tower,  and  forming 
at  regular  intervals  a  transverse  cornice,  enriched  outside 
and  in  with  florid  carvings  in  stone.  This  bewildering 
creation,  full  of  delicate  and  ingenious  details  and  marvels 
of  workmanship,  by  which  these  stones  speak  to  us,  can 
only  be  compared  to  the  overcharged  and  deeply  cut 
ivory  carvings  that  come  from  China,  or  are  made  at 
Dieppe.  In  short,  the  stone  is  like  lace.  Flowers  and  figures 
of  men  and  animals  creep  down  the  ribs,  multiply  at  every 
step,  and  crown  the  vault  with  a  pendant,  in  which  the 
chisels  of  sixteenth  century  sculptors  have  outdone  the  art- 
less stone-carvers  who,  fifty  years  before,  had  made  the  pend- 
ants for  two  staircases  in  Louis  XII.'s  building.  Though 
we  may  be  dazzled  as  we  note  these  varied  forms  repeated 
with  infinite  prolixity,  we  nevertheless  perceive  that  Francis 
I.  lacked  money  for  Blois,  just  as  Louis  XIV.  did  for  Ver- 
sailles. In  more  than  one  instance  a  graceful  head  looks 
out  from  a  block  of  stone  almost  in  the  rough.    More  than 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  81 

one  fanciful  boss  is  but  sketched  with  a  few  strokes  of  the 
chisel,  and  then  abandoned  to  the  damp,  which  has  over- 
grown it  with  green  mould.  On  the  facade,  by  the  side  of 
one  window  carved  like  lace,  another  shows  us  the  massive 
frame  eaten  into  by  time,  which  has  carved  it  after  a  manner 
of  its  own. 

The  least  artistic,  the  least  experienced  eye  finds  here  a 
delightful  contrast  between  this  front,  rippling  with  marvels 
of  design,  and  the  inner  front  of  Louis  XII.'s  chateau,  con- 
sisting on  the  ground  floor  of  arches  of  the  airiest  lightness, 
upheld  by  slender  columns,  resting  on  elegant  balustrades, 
and  two  stories  above  with  windows  wrought  with  charming 
severity.  Under  the  arches  runs  a  gallery,  of  which  the 
walls  were  painted  in  fresco;  the  vaulting  too  must  have 
been  painted,  for  some  traces  are  still  visible  of  that  mag- 
nificence, imitated  from  Italian  architecture — a  reminiscence 
of  our  Kings'  journeys  thither  when  the  Milanese  belonged  to 
them. 

Opposite  the  residence  of  Francis  I.  there  was  at  that  time 
the  chapel  of  the  Counts  of  Blois,  its  fagade  almost  harmo- 
nizing with  the  architecture  of  Louis  XII.'s  building.  No 
figure  of  speech  can  give  an  adequate  idea  of  the  solid  dignity 
of  these  three  masses  of  building.  In  spite  of  the  varieties 
of  style,  a  certain  imposing  royalty,  showing  the  extent  of 
its  fear  by  the  magnitude  of  its  defences,  held  the  three 
buildings  together,  different  as  they  were;  two  of  them 
flanking  the  immense  hall  of  the  States-General,  as  vast  and 
lofty  as  a  church. 

And  certainly  neither  the  simplicity  nor  the  solidity  of 
those  citizen  lives  which  were  described  at  the  beginning  of 
this  narrative — lives  in  which  Art  was  always  represented — 
was  lacking  to  this  royal  residence.  Blois  was  the  fertile 
and  brilliant  example  which  found  a  living  response  from 
citizens  and  nobles,  from  money  and  rank,  alike  in  towns 
and  in  the  country.  You  could  not  have  wished  that  the 
home  of  the  King  who  ruled  Paris  as  it  was  in  the  sixteenth 
century  should  be  other  than  this.     The  splendid  raiment 


82  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'   MEDICI 

of  the  upper  classes,  the  luxury  of  feminine  attire,  must  have 
seemed  singularly  suited  to  the  elaborate  dress  of  the  curi- 
ously wrought  stones. 

From  floor  to  floor,  as  he  mounted  the  wonderful  stairs 
of  his  castle  of  Blois,  the  King  of  France  could  see  further 
and  further  over  the  beautiful  Loire,  which  brought  him 
„news  of  all  his  realm,  which  it  parts  into  two  confronted 
and  almost  rival  halves.  If,  instead  of  placing  Chambord 
in  a  dead  and  gloomy  plain  two  leases  away,  Francis  I.  had 
built  a  Chambord  to  complete  Blois  on  the  site  of  the  gar- 
dens, where  Gaston  subsequently  erected  his  palace,  Versailles 
would  never  have  existed,  and  Blois  would  inevitably  have 
become  the  capital  of  France. 

Four  Valois  and  Catherine  de'  Medici  lavished  their  wealth 
on  the  Chateau  of  Blois,  but  any  one  can  guess  how  prodigal 
the  sovereigns  were,  only  from  seeing  the  thick  dividing  wall, 
the  spinal  column  of  the  building,  with  deep  alcoves  cut 
into  its  substance,  secret  stairs  and  closets  contrived  within 
it,  surrounding  such  vast  rooms  as  the  council  hall,  the 
guard-room,  and  the  royal  apartments,  in  which  a  company 
of  infantry  now  finds  ample  quarters.  Even  if  the  visitor 
should  fail  to  understand  at  a  first  glance  that  the  marvels 
of  the  interior  are  worthy  of  those  of  the  exterior,  the  re- 
mains of  Catherine  de'  Medici's  room — into  which  Chris- 
tophe  was  presently  admitted — are  sufficient  evidence  of  the 
elegant  art  which  peopled  these  rooms  with  lively  fancies, 
with  salamanders  sparkling  among  flowers,  with  all  the  most 
brilliant  hues  of  the  palette  of  the  sixteenth  century  decorat- 
ing the  darkest  staircase.  In  that  room  the  observer  may 
still  see  the  traces  of  that  love  of  gilding  which  Catherine 
had  brought  from  Italy,  for  the  princesses  of  her  country 
loved  (as  the  author  above  quoted  delightfully  expresses  it) 
^to  overlay  the  chateaux  of  France  with  the  gold  gained  in 
'trade  by  their  ancestors,  and  to  stamp  the  walls  of  royal 
rooms  with  the  sign  of  their  wealth. 

The  Queen-mother  occupied  the  rooms  on  the  first  floor 
that  had  formerly  been  those  of  Queen  Claude  de  France, 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  83 

Francis  I/s  wife ;  and  the  delicate  sculpture  is  still  to  be  seen 
of  double  C's,  with  a  device  in  pure  white  of  swans  and  lilies, 
signifying  Candidio'^  candidis,  the  whitest  of  the  white,  the 
badge  of  that  Queen  whose  name,  like  Catherine's,  began 
with  C,  and  equally  appropriate  to  Louis  XII.'s  daughter 
and  to  the  mother  of  the  Valois;  for  notwithstanding  the 
violence  of  Calvinist  slander,  no  doubt  was  ever  thrown  on 
Catherine  de'  Medici's  enduring  fidelity  to  Henri  II. 

The  Queen-mother,  with  two  young  children  still  on  her 
hands — a  bc^,  afterwards  the  Due  d'Alengon,  and  Margue- 
rite, who  became  the  wife  of  Henri  IV.,  and  whom  Charles 
IX.  called  Margot — needed  the  whole  of  this  first  floor. 

King  Francis  II.  and  his  Queen  Mary  Stuart  had  the 
royal  apartments  on  the  second  floor  that  Francis  I.  had  oc- 
cupied, and  which  were  also  those  of  Henri  III.  The  royal 
apartments,  and  those  of  the  Queen-mother,  are  divided  from 
end  to  end  of  the  chateau  into  two  parts  by  the  famous  party 
wall,  four  feet  thick,  which  supports  the  thrust  of  the  im- 
mensely thick  walls  of  the  rooms.  Thus  on  the  lower  as 
well  as  on  the  upper  floor  the  rooms  are  in  two  distinct  suites. 
That  half  which,  facing  the  south,  is  lighted  from  the  court, 
held  the  rooms  for  state  receptions  and  public  business; 
while,  to  escape  the  heat,  the  private  rooms  had  a  north 
aspect,  where  there  is  a  splendid  frontage  with  arcades  and 
balconies,  and  a  view  over  the  county  of  the  Vendomois,  the 
Perchoir  aux  Bretons,  and  the  moats  of  the  town — the  only 
town  mentioned  by  the  great  fable  writer,  the  admirable  la 
Fontaine. 

Francis  I.'s  chateau  at  that  time  ended  at  an  enormous 
tower,  only  begun,  but  intended  to  mark  the  vast  angle 
/'the  palace  would  have  formed  in  turning  a  flank;  Gaston 
subsequently  demolished  part  of  its  walls  to  attach  his  palace 
to  the  tower;  but  he  never  finished  the  work,  and  the  tower 
remains  a  ruin.  This  royal  keep  was  used  as  a  prison,  or, 
according  to  popular  tradition,  as  oubliettes.  What  poet 
would  not  feel  deep  regret  or  weep  for  France  as  he  wanders 
now  through  the  hall  of  this  magnificent  chateau,  and  sees 


M  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

the  exquisite  arabesques  of  Catherine  de'  Medici's  room, 
whitewashed  and  almost  smothered  by  order  of  the  governor 
of  the  barracks  at  the  time  of  the  cholera — for  this  royal 
residence  is  now  a  barrack. 

The  paneling  of  Catherine  de'  Medici's  closet,  of  which 
more  particular  mention  will  presently  be  made,  is  the  last 
relic  of  the  rich  furnishing  collected  by  five  artistic  kings. 

As  we  make  our  way  through  this  labyrinth  of  rooms,  halls, 
staircases,  and  turrets,  we  can  say  with  horrible  certainty, 
"Here  Mary  Stuart  cajoled  her  husband  in  favor  of  the 
Guises.  There  those  Guises  insulted  Catherine.  Later,  on 
this  very  spot,  the  younger  Balafre  fell  under  the  swords 
of  the  avengers  of  the  Crown.  A  century  earlier  Louis  XII. 
signaled  from  that  window  to  invite  the  advance  of  his 
friend  the  Cardinal  d'Amboise.  From  this  balcony 
d'Epernon,  Ravaillac's  accomplice,  welcomed  Queen  Marie 
de'  Medici,  who,  it  is  said,  knew  of  the  intended  regicide  and 
left  thin/»s  to  take  their  course !" 

In  the  chapel  where  Henri  IV.  and  Marguerite  dt  Valois 
were  betrothed — the  last  remnant  of  the  old  chateau  of  the 
Counts  of  Blois — the  regimental  boots  are  made.  This  won- 
derful structure,  where  so  many  styles  are  combined,  where 
such  great  events  have  been  accomplished,  is  in  a  state  of 
ruin  which  is  a  disgrace  to  France.  How  grievous  it  is  to 
those  who  love  the  memorial  buildings  of  old  France,  to  feel 
that  ere  long  these  eloquent  stones  will  have  gone  the  way 
of  the  house  at  the  corner  of  the  Rue  de  la  Vieille-Pelleterie : 
they  will  survive,  perhaps,  only  in  these  pages. 

It  is  necessary  to  observe  that,  in  order  to  keep  a  keener' 
eye  on  the  Court,  the  Guises,  though  they  had  a  mansion 
in  the  town,  which  is  still  to  be  seen,  had  obtained  permission 
to  reside  above  the  rooms  of  Louis  XII.  in  the  apartments 
since  used  by  the  Duchesse  de  Nemours,  in  the  upper  story  on 
the  second  floor. 

Francis  II.  and  his  young  Queen,  Mary  Stuart,  in  lore 
like  two  children  of  sixteen,  as  they  were,  had  been  suddenly 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  85 

transferred,  one  cold  winter's  day,  from  Saint-Germain, 
which  the  Due  de  Guise  thought  too  open  to  surprise,  to  the 
stronghold,  as  it  then  was,  of  Blois,  isolated  on  three  sides 
by  precipitous  slopes,  while  its  gates  were  strictly  guarded. 
The  Guises,  the  Queen's  uncles,  had  the  strongest  reasons 
for  not  living  in  Paris,  and  for  detaining  the  Court  in  a 
place  which  could  be  easily  guarded  and  defended. 

A  struggle  for  the  throne  was  being  carried  on,  which' 
was  not  ended  till  twenty-eight  years  later,  in  1588,  when, 
in  this  same  chateau  of  Blois,  Henri  III.,  bitterly  humiliated 
by  the  House  of  Lorraine,  under  his  mother's  very  eyes, 
planned  the  death  of  the  boldest  of  the  Guises,  the  second 
Balafre  (or  scarred),  son  of  the  first  Balafre,  by  whom 
Catherine  de'  Medici  was  tricked,  imprisoned,  spied  on,  and 
threatened. 

Indeed,  the  fine  Chateau  of  Blois  was  to  Catherine  the 
strictest  prison.  On  the  death  of  her  husband,  who  had  al- 
ways kept  her  in  leading-strings,  she  had  hoped  to  rule ;  but, 
on  the  contrary,  she  found  herself  a  slave  to  strangers,  whose 
politeness  was  infinitely  more  cruel  than  the  brutality  of 
jailers.  She  could  do  nothing  that  was  not  known.  Those  of 
her  ladies  who  were  attached  to  her  either  had  lovers  devoted 
to  the  Guises,  or  Argus  eyes  watching  over  them.  Indeed,  at 
that  time  the  conflict  of  passions  had  the  capricious  vagaries 
which  they  always  derive  from  the  powerful  antagonism  of 
two  hostile  interests  in  the  State.  Love-making,  which 
served  Catherine  well,  was  also  an  instrument  in  the  hands 
of  the  Guises.  Thus  the  Prince  de  Conde,  the.  leader  of  the 
Reformed  party,  was  attached  to  the  Marechale  de  Saint- 
Andre,  whose  husband  was  the  Grand  Master's  tool.  The 
Cardinal,  who  had  learned  from  the  affair  of  the  Vidame  de 
Chartres  that  Catherine  was  unconquered  rather  than  un- 
conquerable, was  paying  court  to  her.  Thus  the  play  of 
passions  brought  strange  complications  into  that  of  politics, 
making  a  double  game  of  chess,  as  it  were,  in  which  it  was 
necessary  to  read  both  the  heart  and  brain  of  a  man,  and  to 
judg/^.  on  occasion,  whether  oae  would  not  belie  the  other. 
—7 


86  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDIGI 

Though  she  lived  constantly  under  the  eye  of  the  Cardinal 
de  Lorraine  or  of  his  brother,  the  Due  Frangois  de  Guise, 
who  both  distrusted  her,  Catherine's  most  immediate  and 
shrewdest  enemy  was  her  daughter-in-law.  Queen  Mary,  a 
little  fair  girl  as  mischievous  as  a  waiting-maid,  as  proud 
as  a  Stuart  might  be  who  wore  three  crowns,  as  learned  as 
an  ancient  scholar,  as  tricky  as  a  school-girl,  as  much  in 
love  with  her  husband  as  a  courtesan  of  her  lover,  devoted 
'to  her  uncles,  whom  she  admired,  and  delighted  to  find  that 
King  Francis,  by  her  persuasion,  shared  her  high  opinion 
of  them.  A  mother-in-law  is  always  a  person  disliked  by 
her  daughter-in-law,  especially  when  she  has  won  the  crown 
and  would  like  to  keep  it — as  Catherine  had  imprudently 
too  plainly  shown.  Her  former  position,  when  Diane  de 
Poitiers  ruled  King  Henri  II.,  had  been  more  endurable;  at 
least  she  had  enjoyed  the  homage  due  to  a  Queen,  and  the 
respect  of  the  Court;  whereas,  now,  the  Duke  and  the  Car- 
dinal, having  none  about  them  but  their  own  creatures, 
seemed  to  take  pleasure  in  humiliating  her.  Catherine,  a 
prisoner  among  courtiers,  was  the  object,  not  ever}^  day, 
but  every  hour,  of  blows  offensive  to.  her  dignity ;  for  the 
Guises  persisted  in  carrying  on  the  same  system  as  the  late 
King  had  employed  to  thwart  her. 

The  six-and-thirty  years  of  disaster  which  devastated 
France  may  be  said  to  have  begun  with  the  scene  in  which 
the  most  perilous  part  had  been  allotted  to  the  son  of  the 
Queen's  furrier — a  part  which  makes  him  the  leading  figure 
in  this  narrative.  The  danger  into  which  this  zealous  re- 
former was  falling  became  evident  in  the  course  of  the  morn- 
ing when  he  set  out  from  the  river-port  of  Beaugency, 
carrying  precious  documents  which  compromised  the  loftiest 
heads  of  the  nobility,  and  embarked  for  Blois  in  company 
with  a  crafty  partisan,  the  indefatigable  la  Kenaudie,  who 
had  arrived  on  the  quay  before  him. 

While  the  barque  conveying  Christophe  was  being  wafted 
down  the  Loire  before  a  light  easterly  breeze,  the  famous 
Cardinal  de  Lorraine,  and  the  second  Due  de  Guise,  one  of 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  87 

the  greatest  war  captains  of  the  time,  were  considering  their 
position,  like  two  eagles  on  a  rocky  peak,  and  looking  cau- 
tiously round  before  striking  the  first  great  blow  by  which 
they  tried  to  kill  the  Reformation  in  France.  This  was  to 
be  struck  at  Amboise,  and  it  was  repeated  in  Paris  twelve 
years  later,  on  the  24th  August  1573. 

In  the  course  of  the  previous  night,  three  gentlemen,  who 
played  an  important  part  in  the  twelve  years'  drama  that 
arose  from  this  double  plot  by  the  Guises  on  one  hand  and  the 
'Reformers  on  the  other,  had  arrived  at  the  chateau  at  a 
furious  gallop,  leaving  their  horses  half  dead  at  the  postern 
gate,  held  by  captains  and  men  who  were  wholly  devoted 
to  the  Due  de  Guise,  the  idol  of  the  soldiery. 

A  word  must  be  said  as  to  this  great  man,  and  first  of  all 
a  word  to  explain  his  present  position. 

His  mother  was  Antoinette  de  Bourbon,  great-aunt  of 
Henri  IV.  But  of  what  account  are  alliances !  At  this 
moment  he  aimed  at  nothing  less  than  his  cousin  de  Condi's 
head.  Mary  Stuart  was  his  niece.  His  wife  was  Anne, 
daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Ferrara.  The  Grand  Conn^table 
Anne  de  Montmorency  addressed  the  Due  de  Guise  as  ''Mon- 
seigneur,"  as  he  wrote  to  the  King,  and  signed  himself  "Your 
very  humble  servant."  Guise,  the  Grand  Master  of  the 
King's  household,  wrote  in  reply,  "Monsieur  le  Connetable,'* 
and  signed,  as  in  writing  to  the  Parlement,  "Your  faithful 
friend." 

As  for  the  Cardinal,  nicknamed  the  Transalpine  Pope,- 
and  spoken  of  by  Estienne  as  "His  Holiness,"  the  whole 
Monastic  Church  of  France  was  on  his  side,  and  he  treated 
with  the  Pope  as  his  equal.  He  was  vain  of  his  eloquence, 
and  one  of  the  ablest  theologians  of  his  time,  while  he  kept 
watch  over  France  and  Italy  by  the  instrumentality  of  three 
religious  Orders  entirely  devoted  to  him,  who  were  on  foot 
for  him  day  and  night,  serving  him  as  spies  and  reporters. 

These  few  words  are  enough  to  show  to  what  a  height  of 
power  the  Cardinal  and  the  Duke  had  risen.  In  spite  of 
their  wealth  and  the  revenues  of  their  officers,  they  were  so 


88  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDIOI 

entirely  disinterested,  or  so  much  carried  away  by  the  tide 
of  polities,  and  so  generous  too,  that  both  were  in  debt — no 
doubt  after  the  manner  of  Caesar.  Hence,  when  Henri  III. 
had  seen  his  threatening  foe  murdered,  the  second  Balafr6, 
the  House  of  Guise  was  inevitably  ruined.  Their  vast  outlay 
for  above  a  century,  in  hope  of  seizing  the  Crown,  accounts/ 
for  the  decay  of  this  great  House  under  Louis  XIII.  and- 
Louis  XIV.,  when  the  sudden  end  of  Madame  revealed  to  all 
Europe  how  low  a  Chevalier  de  Lorraine  had  fallen. 

So  the  Cardinal  and  the  Duke,  proclaiming  themselves 
the  heirs  of  the  deposed  Carlovingian  kings,  behaved  very 
insolently  to  Catherine  de'  Medici,  their  niece's  mother-in- 
law.  The  Duchesse  de  Guise  spared  Catherine  no  mortifica- 
tion; she  was  an  Este,  and  Catherine  de'  Medici  was  the 
daughter  of  self-made  Florentine  merchants,  whom  the  sov- 
ereigns of  Europe  had  not  yet  admitted  to  their  royal  fra- 
ternity. Francis  I.  had  regarded  his  son's  marriage  with 
a  Medici  as  a  mesalliance,  and  had  only  allowed  it  in  the 
belief  that  this  son  would  never  be  the  Dauphin.  Hence  his 
fury  when  the  Dauphin  died,  poisoned  by  the  Florentine 
Montecuculi. 

The  Estes  refused  to  recognize  the  Medici  as  Italian 
princes.  These  time-honored  merchants  were,  in  fact,  strug- 
gling with  the  impossible  problem  of  maintaining  a  throne 
in  the  midst  of  Republican  institutions.  The  title  of  Grand 
Duke  was  not  bestowed  on  the  Medici  till  much  later  by 
Philip  II.,  King  of  Spain;  and  they  earned  it  by  treason  to 
France,  their  benefactress,  and  by  a  servile  attachment  to 
the  Court  of  Spain,  which  was  covertly  thwarting  them  in 
Italy.  ^  , 

"Flatter  none  but  your  enemies !"  This  great  axiom,  ut-' 
tered  by  Catherine,  would  seem  to  have  ruled  all  the  policy  of 
this  merchant  race,  which  never  lacked  great  men  till  its 
destinies  had  grown  great,  and  which  broke  down  a  little 
too  soon  under  the  degeneracy  which  is  always  the  end  of 
royal  dynasties  and  great  families. 

For  three  generations  there  was  a  prelate  and  a  warrior 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  89 

of  the  House  of  Lorraine;  but,  which  is  perhaps  not  less  re- 
markable, the  Churchman  had  always  shown — as  did  the 
present  Cardinal — a  singular  likeness  to  Cardinal  Ximenes, 
whom  the  Cardinal  de  Richelieu  also  resembled.  These  five 
prelates  all  had  faces  that  were  at  once  mean  and  terrifying ; 
while  the  warrior's  face  was  of  that  Basque  and  mountain 
,type  which  reappears  in  the  features  of  Henri  IV.  In  both 
the  father  and  the  son  it  was  seamed  by  a  scar,  which  did 
not  destroy  the  grace  and  affability  that  bewitched  their  sol- 
diers as  much  as  their  bravery. 

The  way  and  the  occasion  of  the  Grand  Master's  being 
wounded  is  not  without  interest  here,  for  it  was  healed  by 
the  daring  of  one  of  the  personages  of  this  drama,  Ambroise 
Pare,  who  was  under  obligation  to  the  Syndic  of  the  fur- 
riers. At  the  siege  of  Calais  the  Duke's  head  was  pierced 
by  a  lance  which,  entering  below  the  right  eye,  went  through 
to  the  neck  below  the  left  ear,  the  end  broke  off  and  remained 
in  the  wound.  The  Duke  was  lying  in  his  tent  in  the  midst 
of  the  general  woe,  and  would  have  died  but  for  the  bold 
promptitude  and  devotion  of  Ambroise  Pare, 

"The  Duke  is  not  dead,  gentlemen,"  said  Pare,  turning 
to  the  bystanders,  who  were  dissolved  in  tears.  "But  he 
soon  will  be,"  he  added,  "unless  I  treat  him  as  if  he  were, 
and  I  will  try  it  at  the  risk  of  the  worst  that  can  befall 
me.     .     .     .    You  see !" 

He  set  his  left  foot  on  the  Duke's  breast,  took  the  stump  of 
the  lance  with  his  nails,  loosened  it  by  degrees,  and  at  last 
drew  the  spear-head  out  of  the  wound,  as  if  it  had  been  from 
some  senseless  object  instead  of  a  man's  head.  Though  he 
cured  the  Prince  he  had  handled  so  boldly,  he  could  not 
hinder  him  from  bearing  to  his  grave  the  terrible  scar  from 
which  he  had  his  name.  His  son  also  had  the  same  nickname 
for  a  similar  reason. 

Having  gained  entire  mastery  over  the  King,  who  was 
ruled  by  his  wife,  as  a  result  of  the  passionate  and  mutual 
affection  which  the  Guises  knew  how  to  turn  to  account,  the 
two  great  Princes  of  Lorraine  reigned  over  France,  and  had 


90  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

not  an  enemy  at  Court  but  Catherine  de'  Medici.  And  no 
great  politician  ever  played  a  closer  game.  The  respective 
attitudes  of  Henri  II.'s  ambitious  widow,  and  of  the  no 
less  ambitious  House  of  Lorraine,  was  symbolized,  as  it  were, 
by  the  positions  they  held  on  the  terrace  of  the  chateau  on 
the  very  morning  when  Christophe  was  about  to  arrive  there. 
The  Queen-mother,  feigning  extreme  affection  for  the 
Guises,  had  asked  to  be  informed  as  to  the  news  brought 
by  the  three  gentlemen  who  had  arrived  from  different  parts 
of  the  kingdom;  but  she  had  been  mortified  by  a  polite  dis- 
missal from  the  Cardinal.  She  was  walking  at  the  further 
end  of  the  pleasaunce  above  the  Loire,  where  she  was  having 
an  observatory  erected  for  her  astrologer,  Kuggieri;  the 
building  may  still  be  seen,  and  from  it  a  wide  view  is  to  be 
had  over  the  beautiful  valley.  The  two  Guises  were  on  the 
opposite  side  overlooking  the  Vendomois,  the  upper  part  of 
the  town,  the  Perchoir  aux  Bretons,  and  the  postern  gate  of 
the  chateau. 

Catherine  had  deceived  the  brothers,  tricking  them  by  an 
assumption  of  dissatisfaction ;  for  she  was  really  very  glad  to 
be  able  to  speak  with  one  of  the  gentlemen  who  had  come  in 
hot  haste,  and  who  was  in  her  secret  confidence;  who  boldly 
played  a  double  game,  but  who  was,  to  be  sure,  well  paid 
for  it.  This  gentleman  was  Chiverni,  who  affected  to  be  the 
mere  tool  of  the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine,  but  who  was  in  reality 
in  Catherine's  service.  Catherine  had  two  other  devoted 
allies  in  the  two  Gondis,  creatures  of  her  own;  but  they,  as 
Florentines,  were  too  open  to  the  suspicions  of  the  Guises 
to  be  sent  into  the  countiy ;  she  kept  them  at  the  Court,  where 
their  every  word  and  action  was  closely  watched,  but  where 
they,  on  their  side,  watched  the  Guises  and  reported  to  Cath- 
erine. These  two  Italians  kept  a  third  adherent  to  the. 
Queen-mother's  faction,  Birague,  a  clever  Piedmontese  who,, 
like  Chiverni,  pretended  to  have  abandoned  Catherine  to 
attach  himself  to  the  Guises,  and  who  encouraged  them  in 
their  undertakings  while  spying  for  Catherine. 

Chiverni  had  arrived  from  Ecouen  and  Paris.     The  last 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  91 

to  ride  in  was  Saint-Andre,  Marshal  of  France,  who  rose  to 
be  such  an  important  personage  that  the  Guises  adopted  him 
as  the  third  of  the  triumvirate  they  formed  against 
Catherine  in  the  following  year.  But  earlier  than  either 
of  these,  Vieilleville,  the  builder  of  the  Chateau  of 
Duretal,  who  had  also  by  his  devotion  to  the  Guises  earned 
the  rank  of  Marshal,  had  secretly  come  and  more  secretly 
gone,  without  any  one  knowing  what  the  mission  might  be<, 
that  the  Grand  Master  had  given  him.  Saint-Andre,  it  was» 
known,  had  been  instructed  to  take  military  measures  to  en- 
tice all  the  reformers  who  were  under  arms  to  Amboise,  as 
the  result  of  a  council  held  by  the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine,  the 
Due  de  Guise,  Birague,  Chiverni,  VieilleviUe,  and  Saint- 
Andre.  As  the  heads  of  the  House  of  Lorraine  thus  em- 
ployed Birague,  it  is  to  be  supposed  that  they  trusted  to  their 
strength,  for  they  knew  that  he  was  attached  to  the  Queen- 
mother  ;  but  it  is  possible  that  they  kept  him  about  them  with 
a  view  to  discovering  their  rival's  secret  designs,  as  she  allowed 
him  to  attend  them.  In  those  strange  times  the  double  part 
played  by  some  political  intriguers  was  known  to  both  the 
parties  who  employed  them;  they  were  like  cards  in  tha 
hands  of  players,  and  the  craftiest  won  the  game. 

All  through  this  sitting  the  brothers  had  been  impene- 
trably guarded.  Catherine's  conversation  with  her  friends 
will,  however,  fully  explain  the  purpose  of  this  meeting,  con- 
vened by  the  Guises  in  the  open  air,  at  break  of  day,  in  the 
terraced  garden,  as  though  every  one  feared  to  speak  within 
the  walls  full  of  ears  of  the  Chateau  of  Blois. 

The  Queen-mother,  who  had  been  walking  about  all  the 
morning  with  the  two  Gondis,  under  pretence  of  examining 
rho  observatory  that  was-  being  built,  but,  in  fact,  anxiously 
watching  the  hostile  party,  was  presently  joined  by  Chiverni, 
She  was  standing  at  the  angle  of  the  terrace  opposite  the 
Church  of  Saint-ISTicholas,  and  there  feared  no  listeners.  Tlie 
wall  is  as  high  as  the  church-towers,  and  the  Guises  always 
held  council  at  the  other  corner  of  the  terrace,  below  the 
dungeon  then  begun,   walking  to   and   from  the   Perchoir 


92  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'   MEDIGI 

des  Bretons  and  the  arcade  by  the  bridge  which  joined  the 
gardens  to  the  Perchoir.  There  was  nobody  at  the  bottom  of 
the  ravine. 

Chiverni  took  the  Queen's  hand  to  kiss  it,  and  sHpped  into 
her  fingers  a  tiny  letter  without  being  seen  by  the  Italians. 
Catherine  quickly  turned  away,  walked  to  the  comer  of  the 
parapet,  and  read  as  follows : — 

.  "Tou  are  powerful  enough  to  keep  the  balance  true  be- 
tween the  great  ones,  and  to  make  them  contend  as  to  which 
shall  serve  you  best;  you  have  your  house  full  of  kings,  and 
need  not  fear  either  Lorraines  or  Bourbons  so  long  as  you  set 
them  against  each  other;  for  both  sides  aim  at  snatching  the 
crown  from  your  children.  Be  your  advisers'  mistress,  and 
not  their  slave ;  keep  up  each  side  by  the  other ;  otherwise  the 
kingdom  will  go  from  bad  to  worse,  and  great  wars  may 
ensue,  L'Hopital." 

The  Queen  placed  this  letter  in  the  bosom  of  her  stom- 
acher, reminding  herself  to  bum  it  as  soon  as  she  should  be 
alone. 

''When  did  you  see  him  ?"  she  asked  Chiverni. 

"On  returning  from  seeing  the  Connetable  at  Melun;  he 
was  going  though  with  the  Duchesse  de  Berri,  whom  he  was 
most  anxious  to  convey  in  safety  to  Savoy,  so  as  to  return 
here  and  enlighten  the  Chancellor  Olivier,  who  is,  in  fact, 
the  dupe  of  the  Lorraines.  Monsieur  de  I'Hopital  is  resolved 
to  adhere  to  your  cause,  seeing  the  aims  that  Messieurs  de 
Guise  have  in  view.  And  he  will  hasten  back  as  fast  as  pos- 
sible to  give  you  his  vote  in  the  Council." 

"Is  he  sincere?"  said  Catherine.  "For  you  know  that 
when  the  Lorraines  admitted  him  to  the  Council,  it  was  to 
enable  them  to  rule." 

•  "L'Hopital  is  a  Frenchman  of  too  good  a  stock  not  to  be 
honest,"  said  Chiverni;  "besides,  that  letter  is  a  sufficient 
pledge." 

"And  what  answer  does  the  Connetable  send  to  these  gen- 
tlemen ?" 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  93 

"He  says  the  King  is  his  master,  and  he  awaits  his  orders. 
On  this  reply,  the  Cardinal,  to  prevent  any  resistance,  will 
propose  to  appoint  his  brother  Lieutenant-General  of  the 
realm." 

"So  soon!"  cried  Catherine  in  dismay.  "Well,  and  did 
Monsieur  ,de  I'Hopital  give  you  any  further  message  for 
me?" 

"He  told  me,  madame,  that  you  alone  can  stand  between 
the  throne  and  Messieurs  de  Guise." 

"But  does  he  suppose  that  I  will  use  the  Huguenots  as  a 
means  of  defence?" 

"Oh,  madame,"  cried  Chiverni,  surprised  by  her  per- 
spicacity, "we  never  thought  of  placing  you  in  such  a  diffi- 
cult position." 

"Did  he  know  what  a  position  I  am  in?"  asked  the  Queen 
calmly. 

"Pretty  nearly.  He  thinks  you  made  a  dupe's  bargain 
when,  on  the  death  of  the  late  King,  you  accepted  for  your 
share  the  fragments  saved  from  the  ruin  of  Madame  Diane. 
Messieurs  de  Guise  thought  they  had  paid  their  debt  to  the 
Queen  by  gratifying  the  woman." 

"Yes,"  said  Catherine,  looking  at  the  two  Gondis,  "I  made 
a  great  mistake  there." 

"A  mistake  the  gods  might  make!"  replied  Charles  de 
Gondi. 

"Gentlemen,"  said  the  Queen,  "if  I  openly  take  up  the 
cause  of  the  Eeformers,  I  shall  be  the  slave  of  a  party." 

"Madame,"  said  Chiverni  eagerly,  "I  entirely  agree  with 
you.  You  must  make  use  of  them,  but  not  let  them  make  use 
of  you." 

"Although,  for  the  moment,  your  strength  lies  there,"  said 
Charles  de  Gondi,  "we  must  not  deceive  ourselves;  succesS) 
and  failure  are  equally  dangerous !" 

"I  know  it,"  said  the  Queen.  "One  false  move  will  be  a 
pretext  eagerly  seized  by  the  Guises  to  sweep  me  off  the 
board !" 

"A  Pope's  niece,  the  mother  of  four  Valois,  the  Queen  of 


94  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

France,  the  widow  of  the  most  ardent  persecutor  of  the  Hu- 
guenots, an  Italian  and  a  Catholic,  the  aunt  of  Leo  X., — can 
you  form  an  alliance  with  the  Kef ormation  ?"  asked  Charles 
de  Gondi. 

"On  the  other  hand,"  Albert  replied,  "is  not  seconding  the 
Guises  consenting  to  usurpation?  You  have  to  deal  with  a 
race  that  looks  to  the  struggle  between  the  Church  and  the 
Reformation  to  give  them  a  crown  for  the  taking.  You  may 
avail  yourself  of  Huguenot  help  without  abjuring  the 
Faith." 

"Remember,  madame,  that  your  family,  which  ought  to 
be  wholly  devoted  to  the  King  of  France,  is  at  this  moment 
in  the  service  of  the  King  of  Spain,"  said  Chiverni.  "And  it 
would  go  over  to  the  Reformation  to-morrow  if  the  Reforma- 
tion could  make  the  Duke  of  Florence  King !" 

"I  am  very  well  inclined  to  give  the  Huguenots  a  helping 
hand  for  a  time,"  said  Catherine,  "were  it  only  to  be  re- 
venged on  that  soldier,  that  priest,  and  that  woman !" 

And  with  an  Italian  glance,  her  eye  turned  on  the  Duke 
and  the  Cardinal,  and  then  to  the  upper  rooms  of  the  chateau 
where  her  son  lived  and  Mary  Stuart.  "Those  three  snatched 
the  reins  of  government  from  my  hands,"  she  went  on,  "when 
I  had  waited  for  them  long  enough  while  that  old  woman 
held  them  in  my  place." 

She  jerked  her  head  in  the  direction  of  Chenonceaux,  the 
chateau  she  had  just  exchanged  for  Chaumont  with  Diane 
de  Poitiers.  "Ma"  she  said  in  Italian,  "it  would  seem  that 
these  gentry  of  the  Geneva  bands  have  not  wit  enough  to 
apply  to  me ! — On  my  honor,  I  cannot  go  to  meet  them !  And 
not  one  of  you  would  dare  to  carry  them  a  message."  She 
stamped  her  foot.  "I  hoped  you  might  have  met  the  hunch- 
back at  ficouen,"  she  said  to  Chiverni.     "He  has  brains." 

"He  was  there,  madame,"  replied  Chiverni,  "but  he  could 
not  induce  the  Connetable  to  join  him.  Monsieur  de  Mont- 
morency would  be  glad  enough  to  overthrow  the  Guises,  who 
obtained  his  dismissal;  but  he  will  have  nothing  to  do  with 
heresy." 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  95 

"And  who,  gentlemen,  is  to  crush  these  private  whims  that 
are  an  offence  to  Eoyalty  ?  By  Heaven !  these  nobles  must  be 
made  to  destroy  each  other — as  Louis  XI.  made  them,  the 
greatest  of  your  kings.  In  this  kingdom  there  are  four  or 
five  parties,  and  my  son's  is  the  weakest  of  them  all." 

"The  Reformation  is  an  idea,"  remarked  Charles  de  Gondii 
"and  the  parties  crushed  by  Louis  the  Eleventh  were  based 
only  on  interest." 

"There  is  always  an  idea  to  back  up  interest,"  replied 
"Chiverni.  "In  Louis  XL's  time  the  idea  was  called  the 
Great  Fief !" 

"Use  heresy  as  an  axe,"  said  Albert  de  Gondi.  "You  will 
not  incur  the  odium  of  executions." 

"Ha !"  said  the  Queen,  "but  I  know  nothing  of  the  strength 
or  the  schemes  of  these  folks,  and  I  cannot  communicate  with 
them  through  any  safe  channel.  If  I  were  found  out  in  any 
such  conspiracy,  either  by  the  Queen,  who  watches  me  as  if 
I  were  an  infant  in  arms,  or  by  my  two  jailers,  who  let  no  one 
come  into  the  chateau,  I  should  be  banished  from  the  coun- 
try, and  taken  back  to  Florence  under  a  formidable  escort 
captained  by  some  ruffianly  Guisard !  Thank  you,  friends ! — 
Oh,  daughter-in-law !  I  hope  you  may  some  day  be  a  prisoner 
in  your  own  house;  then  you  will  know  what  you  have  in- 
flicted on  me!" 

"Their  schemes !"  exclaimed  Chiverni.  "The  Grand  Mas- 
ter and  the  Cardinal  know  them;  but  those  two  foxes  will  not 
tell.  If  you,  madame,  can  make  them  tell,  I  will  devote 
myself  to  you,  and  come  to  an  understanding  with  the  Prince 
de  Conde." 

"Which  of  their  plans  have  they  failed  to  conceal  from 
you?"  asked  the  Queen,  glancing  towards  the  brothers  de 
Guise. 

"Monsieur  de  Vieilleville  and  Monsieur  de  Saint-Andre 
have  just  had  their  orders,  of  which  we  know  nothing;  but 
the  Grand  Master  is  concentrating  his  best  troops  on  the 
left  bank,  it  would  seem.  Within  a  few  days  you  will  find 
yourself  at  Amboise.    The  Grand  Master  came  to  this  terrace 


96  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

to  study  the  position,  and  he  does  not  think  Blois  favorable 
to  his  private  schemes.  Well,  then,  what  does  he  want?" 
said  Chiverni,  indicating  the  steep  cliffs  that  surround  the 
chateau.  "The  Court  could  nowhere  be  safer  from  sudden 
attack  than  it  is  here." 

"Abdicate  or  govern,"  said  Albert  de  Gondi  in  the  Queen's 
ear  as  she  stood  thinking. 

A  fearful  expression  of  suppressed  rage  flashed  across  the 
Queen's  handsome  ivory-pale  face. — She  was  not  yet  forty, 
and  she  had  lived  for  twenty-six  years  in  the  French  Court, 
absolutely  powerless,  she,  who  ever  since  she  had  come  there 
had  longed  to  play  the  leading  part. 

"Never  so  long  as  this  son  lives !  His  wife  has  bewitched 
him!" 

After  a  short  pause  these  terrible  words  broke  from  her  in 
the  language  of  Dante. 

Catherine's  exclamation  had  its  inspiration  in  a  strange 
prediction,  spoken  a  few  days  before  at  the  Chateau  of  Chau- 
mont,  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Loire,  whither  she  had 
gone  with  her  astrologer  Euggieri  to  consult  a  famous  sooth- 
sayer. This  woman  was  brought  to  meet  her  by  Nostra- 
damus, the  chief  of  those  physicians  who  in  that  great  six- 
teenth century  believed  in  the  occult  sciences,  with  Euggieri, 
Cardan,  Paracelsus,  and  many  more.  This  fortune-teller,  of 
whose  life  history  has  no  record,  had  fixed  the  reign  of  Fran- 
cis II.  at  one  year's  duration. 

"And  what  is  your  opinion  of  all  this?"  Catherine  asked 
Chiverni. 

"There  will  be  fighting,"  said  the  cautious  gentleman. 
"The  King  of  Navarre " 

"Oh !  say  the  Queen  !"  Catherine  put  in. 

"Very  true,  the  Queen,"  said  Chiverni,  smiling,  'Tias  made 
the  Prince  de  Conde  the  chief  of  the  reformed  party;  he,  as 
a  younger  son,  may  dare  much;  and  Monsieur  le  Cardinal 
talks  of  sending  for  him  to  come  here." 

"If  only  he  comes !"  cried  the  Queen,  "I  am  saved !" 

So  it  will  be  seen  that  the  leaders  of  the  great  Eefornaing 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DB'  MEDICI  »7 

movement  had  been  right  in  thinking  of  Catherine  as  an 
ally. 

"This  is  the  jest  of  it,"  said  the  Queen;  "the  Bourbons 
are  tricking  the  Huguenots,  and  Master  Calvin,  de  Beze,  and 
the  rest  are  cheating  the  Bourbons;  but  shall  we  be  strong 
enough  to  take  in  the  Huguenots,  the  Bourbons,  and  the 
Guises  ?  In  front  of  three  such  foes  we  are  justified  in  feel- 
ing our  pulse,"  said  she. 

'     "They  have  not  the  King,"  replied  Albert.     "You  must 
always  win,  having  the  King  on  your  side." 

"Maladetta  Maria!"  said  Catherine,  between  her  teeth. 

"The  Guises  are  already  thinking  of  diverting  the  affec- 
tions of  the  middle  class,"  said  Birague. 

The  hope  of  snatching  the  Crown  had  not  been  premedi- 
tated by  the  two  heads  of  the  refractory  House  of  Guise; 
there  was  nothing  to  justify  the  project  or  the  hope;  cir- 
cumstances suggested  such  audacity.  The  two  Cardinals  and 
the  two  Balafres  were,  as  it  happened,  four  ambitious  men, 
superior  in  political  gifts  to  any  of  the  men  about  them. 
Indeed,  the  family  was  only  subdued  at  last  by  Henri  IV., 
himself  a  leader  of  faction,  brought  up  in  the  great  school 
of  which  Catherine  and  the  Guises  were  the  teachers — and  he 
had  profited  by  their  lessons. 

At  this  time  these  two  brothers  were  the  arbiters  of  the 
greatest  revolution  attempted  in  Europe  since  that  carried 
through  in  England  under  Henry  VIII.,  which  had  resulted 
from  the  invention  of  printing.  They  were  the  enemies  of 
the  Eeform-ation,  the  power  was  in  their  hands,  and  they 
meant  to  stamp  out  heresy;  but  Calvin,  their  opponent, 
though  less  famous  than  Luther,  was  a  stronger  man.  Calvin 
saw  Government  where  Luther  had  only  seen  Dogma.  Where 
.vhe  burly,  beer-drinking,  uxorious  German  fought  with  the 
"Devil,  flinging  his  inkstand  at  the  fiend,  the  man  of  Picardy, 
frail  and  unmarried,  dreamed  of  plans  of  campaign,  of  di- 
recting battles,  of  arming  princes,  and  of  raising  whole  na- 
tions by  disseminating  republican  doctrines  in  the  hearts  of 


M  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

the  middle  classes,  so  as  to  make  up,  by  increased  progress  in 
the  Spirit  of  Nations,  for  his  constant  defeats  on  the  battle- 
field. 

The  Cardinal  de  Lorraine  and  the  Due  de  Guise  knew 
quite  as  well  as  Philip  II.  and  the  Duke  of  Alva  where  the 
Monarchy  was  aimed  at,  and  how  close  the  connection  was 
between  Catholicism  and  sovereignty.  Charles  V.,  intoxi- 
cated with  having  drunk  too  deeply  of  Charlemagne's  cup, 
and  trusting  too  much  in  the  strength  of  his  rule,  for  he 
believed  that  he  and  Soliman  might  divide  the  world  between 
them,  was  not  at  first  conscious  that  his  front  was  attacked; 
as  soon  as  Cardinal  Granvelle  showed  him  the  extent  of  the 
festering  sore,  he  abdicated. 

The  Guises  had  a  startling  conception;  they  would  extin- 
guish heresy  vrith  a  single  blow.  They  tried  to  strike  that 
blow  for  the  first  time  at  Amboise,  and  they  made  a  second 
attempt  on  Saint-Bartholomew's  Day;  this  time  they  were  in 
accord  with  Catherine  de'  Medici,  enlightened  as  she  was 
by  the  flames  of  twelve  years'  wars,  and  yet  more  by  the 
ominous  word  "Eepublic"  spoken  and  even  published  at  a 
later  date  by  the  writers  of  the  Reformation,  whose  ideas 
Lecamus,  the  typical  citizen  of  Paris,  had  already  under- 
stood. The  two  Princes,  on  the  eve  of  striking  a  fatal  blow 
to  the  heart  of  the  nobility,  in  order  to  cut  it  off  from  the  first 
from  a  religious  party  whose  triumph  would  be  its  ruin,  were 
now  discussing  the  means  of  announcing  their  Coup  d'Etat 
to  the  King,  while  Catherine  was  conversing  with  her  four 
counselors. 

"Jeanne  d'Albret  knew  what  she  was  doing  when  she  pro- 
claimed herself  the  protectress  of  the  Huguenots !  She  has 
in  the  Eeformation  a  battering-ram  which  she  makes  good 
play  with!"  said  the  Grand  Master,  who  had  measured  the 
depth  of  the  Queen  of  Navarre's  scheming. 

Jeanne  d'Albret  was,  in  point  of  fact,  one  of  the  cleverest 
personages  of  her  time. 

"Theodore  de  B^ze  is  at  Nerac,  having  taken  Calvin^s 
orders." 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  89 

"What  men  those  common  folk  can  lay  their  hands  on!" 
cried  the  Duke. 

"Ay,  we  have  not  a  man  on  our  side  to  match  that  fellow 
la  Renaudie,"  said  the  Cardinal.    "He  is  a  perfect  Catiline." 

"Men  like  him  always  act  on  their  own  account/'  replied 
the  Duke.  "Did  not  I  see  la  Renaudie's  Value?  I  loaded 
him  with  favors,  I  helped  him  to  get  away  when  he  was  con- 
demned by  the  Bourgogne  Parlement,  I  got  him  back  into 
France  by  obtaining  a  revision  of  his  trial,  and  I  intended 
to  do  all  I  could  for  him,  while  he  was  plotting  a  diabolical 
conspiracy  against  us.  The  rascal  has  effected  an  alliance 
between  the  German  Protestants  and  the  heretics  in  France 
by  smoothing  over  the  discrepancies  of  dogma  between  Luther 
and  Calvin.  He  has  won  over  the  disaffected  nobles  to  the 
cause  of  the  Reformation  without  asking  them  to  abjure 
Catholicism.  So  long  ago  as  last  year  he  had  thirty  com- 
manders on  his  side !  He  v/as  everywhere  at  once :  at  Lyons, 
in  Languedoc,  at  Nantes.  Finally,  he  drew  up  the  Articles 
settled  in  Council  and  distributed  throughout  Germany,  in 
which  theologians  declare  that  it  is  justifiable  to  use  force 
to  get  the  King  out  of  our  hands,  and  this  is  being  dissemi- 
nated in  every  town.  Look  for  him  where  you  will,  you  will 
nowhere  find  him ! 

"Hitherto  I  have  shown  him  nothing  but  kindness !  We 
shall  have  to  kill  him  like  a  dog,  or  to  make  a  bridge  of  gold 
for  him  to  cross  and  come  into  our  house." 

"Brittany  and  Languedoc,  the  whole  kingdom  indeed,  is 
being  worked  upon  to  give  us  a  deadly  shock,"  said  the  Car- 
dinal. "After  yesterday's  festival,  I  spent  the  rest  of  the 
night  in  reading  all  the  information  sent  me  by  my  priest- 
hood; but  no  one  is  involved  but  some  impoverished  gentle- 
'men  and  artisans,  people  who  may  be  either  hanged  or  left) 
alive,  it  matters  not  which.  The  Colignys  and  the  Condea 
are  not  yet  visible,  though  they  hold  the  threads  of  the  con- 
spiracy." 

"Ay,"  said  the  Duke;  "and  as  soon  as  that  lawyer  Ave- 
nelles  had  let  the  cat  out  of  the  bag,  I  told  Braguelonne  tc 


100  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

give  the  conspirators  their  head:  they  have  no  suspicions, 
they  think  they  can  surprise  us,  and  then  perhaps  the  leaders 
will  show  themselves.  My  advice  would  be  that  we  should 
allow  ourselves  to  be  beaten  for  forty-eight  hours " 

"That  would  be  half-an-hour  too  long,"  said  the  Cardinal 
in  alarm. 

"How  brave  you  are !"  retorted  la  Balaf re. 

The  Cardinal  went  on  with  calm  indifference : 

"Whether  the  Prince  de  Conde  be  implicated  or  no,  if  we 
are  assured  that  he  is  the  leader,  cut  off  his  head.  What  we 
want  for  that  business  is  judges  rather  than  soldiers,  and 
there  will  never  be  any  lack  of  judges!  Victory  in  the 
Supreme  Court  is  always  more  certain  than  on  the  field  of 
battle,  and  costs  less." 

"I  am  quite  willing,"  replied  the  Duke.  "But  do  you  be- 
lieve that  the  Prince  de  Conde  is  powerful  enough  to  inspire 
such  audacity  in  those  who  are  sent  on  first  to  attack  us  ?  Is 
there  not ?" 

"The  King  of  Navarre,"  said  the  Cardinal. 

"A  gaby  who  bows  low  in  my  presence,"  replied  the  Duke. 
"That  Florentine  woman's  graces  have  blinded  you,  I 
think " 

"Oh,  I  have  thought  of  that  already,"  said  the  prelate. 
"If  I  aim  at  a  gallant  intimacy  with  her,  is  it  not  that  I  may 
read  to  the  bottom  of  her  heart  ?" 

"She  has  no  heart,"  said  his  brother  sharply.  "She  is  even 
more  ambitious  than  we  are." 

"You  are  a  brave  commander,"  said  the  Cardinal;  'TDut 
take  my  word  for  it,  our  skirts  are  very  near  touching,  and 
I  made  Mary  Stuart  watch  her  narrowly  before  you  ever  sus- 
pected her.  Catherine  has  no  more  religion  in  her  than  my 
(shoe.  If  she  is  not  the  soul  of  the  conspiracy,  it  is  not  for 
llack  of  goodwill ;  but  we  will  draw  her  out  and  see  how  far 
she  will  support  us.  Till  now  I  know  for  certain  that  she 
has  not  held  any  communication  with  the  heretics." 

"It  is  time  that  we  should  lay  everything  before  the  King, 
and  the  Queen-mother,  who  knows  nothing,"  said  the  Duke, 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  lOl 

*'aiid  that  is  the  only  proof  of  her  innocence.  La  Eenandie 
will  understand  from  my  arrangements  that  we  are  warned. 
Last  night  Nemours  must  have  been  following  up  the  detach- 
ments of  the  Reformed  party,  who  were  coming  in  by  the 
cross-roads,  and  the  conspirators  will  be  compelled  to  attack 
us  at  Amboise ;  I  will  let  them  all  in. — Here,"  and  he  pointed 
to  the  three  steep  slopes  of  rock  on  which  the  Chateau  de 
Blois  is  built,  just  as  Chiverni  had  done  a  moment  since, 
"we  should  have  a  fight  with  no  result ;  the  Huguenots  could 
come  and  go  at  will.  Blois  is  a  hall  with  four  doors,  while 
Amboise  is  a  sack." 

"I  will  not  leave  the  Florentine  Queen,"  said  the  Cardinal. 

"We  have  made  one  mistake,"  remarked  the  Duke,  playing 
with  his  dagger,  tossing  it  in  the  air,  and  catching  it  again 
by  the  handle;  "we  ought  to  have  behaved  to  her  as  to  the 
Reformers,  giving  her  liberty  to  move,  so  as  to  take  her  in 
the  act." 

The  Cardinal  looked  at  his  brother  for  a  minute,  shaking 
his  head. 

"What  does  Pardaillan  want  ?"  the  Duke  exclaimed,  seeing 
this  young  gentleman  coming  along  the  terrace.  Pardaillan 
was  to  become  famous  for  his  fight  with  la  Eenaudie,  in  which 
both  were  killed. 

"Monseigneur,  a  youth  sent  here  by  the  Queen's  furrier 
is  at  the  gate,  and  says  that  he  has  a  set  of  ermine  to  deliver 
to  Her  Majesty.    Is  he  to  be  admitted  ?" 

"To  be  sure ;  an  ermine  surcoat  she  spoke  of  but  yesterday," 
said  the  Cardinal.  "Let  the  shop-clerk  in.  She  will  need 
the  mantle  for  her  journey  by  the  Loire." 

"Which  way  did  he  come,  that  he  was  not  stopped  before 
reaching  the  gate  ?"  asked  the  Grand  Master. 

"I  do  not  know,"  said  Pardaillan. 
i     "I  will  go  to  see  him  in  the  Queen's  rooms,"  said  la  Balafre. 
"Tell  him  to  await  her  lever  in  the  guard-room.    But,  Par- 
daillan, is  he  young?" 

"Yes,  Monseigneur;  he  says  he  is  Lecamus'  son." 

"Lecamus  is  a  good  Catholic,"  said  the  Cardinal,  who,  like 


102  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

the  Duke,  was  gifted  with  a  memory  like  Caesar's.  "The 
priest  of  Saint-Pierre  aux  Boeufs  trusts  him,  for  he  is  officer 
of  the  peace  for  the  Palace." 

**Make  this  youth  chat  with  the  Captain  of  the  Scotch 
Guard,  all  the  same,"  said  the  Grand  Master,  v/ith  an  em- 
phasis which  gave  the  words  a  very  pointed  meaning.  "But 
Ambroise  is  at  the  chateau;  through  him  we  shall  know  at 
once  if  he  really  is  the  son  of  Lecamus,  who  was  formerly 
his  very  good  friend.     Ask  for  Ambroise  Pare." 

At  this  moment  the  Queen  came  towards  the  brothers,  who 
hurried  to  meet  her  with  marks  of  respect,  in  which  Catherine 
never  failed  to  discern  deep  irony. 

"Gentlemen,"  said  she,  "will  you  condescend  to  inform  me 
of  what  is  going  on?  Is  the  widow  of  your  late  sovereign 
of  less  account  in  your  esteem  than  Messieurs  de  Vieilleville, 
Birague,  and  Chivemi?" 

"Madame,"  said  the  Cardinal,  with  an.  air  of  gallantry, 
"our  first  duty  as  men,  before  all  matters  of  politics,  is  not 
to  alarm  ladies  by  false  rumors.  This  morning,  indeed,  we 
have  had  occasion  to  confer  on  State  affairs.  You  will  pardon 
my  brother  for  having  in  the  first  instance  given  orders  on 
purely  military  matters  which  must  be  indifferent  to  you — 
the  really  important  points  remain  to  be  discussed.  If  you 
approve,  we  will  all  attend  the  lever  of  the  King  and  Queen ; 
it  is  close  on  the  hour." 

''Why,  what  is  happening.  Monsieur  le  Grand  Maitre?" 
asked  Catherine,  affecting  terror. 

"The  Reformation,  madame,  is  no  longer  a  mere  heresy; 
it  is  a  party  which  is  about  to  take  up  arms  and  seize  the 
King." 

Catherine,  with  the  Cardinal,  the  Duke,  and  the  gentlemen, 
made  their  way  towards  the  staircase  by  the  corridor,  which 
was  crowded  with  courtiers  who  had  not  the  right  of  entree, 
and  who  ranged  themselves  against  the  wall. 

Gondi,  who  had  been  studying  the  Princes  of  Lorraine 
while  Catherine  was  conversing  with  them,  said  in  good  Tus- 
can and  in  Catherine's  ear  these  two  words,  which  became 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  108 

bywords,  and  which  express  one  aspect  of  that  royally  power- 
ful nature: 

"Odiate  e  aspettate!"    Hate  and  wait. 

Pardaillan,  who  had  delivered  to  the  officer  on  guard  at 
the  gatehouse  the  order  to  admit  the  messenger  from  the 
Queen's  furrier,  found  Christophe  standing  outside  the 
portico  and  staring  at  the  facade  built  by  good  King  Louis 
XII.,  whereon  there  was  at  that  time  an  even  more  numerous 
array  of  sculptured  figures  of  the  coarsest  buffoonery — if  we 
may  judge  by  what  has  survived.  The  curious  will  detect, 
for  instance,  a  figure  of  a  woman  carved  on  the  capital  of 
one  of  the  columns  of  the  gateway  holding  up  her  skirts,  and 
saucily  exhibiting  "what  Brunei  displayed  to  Marphise"  to  a 
burly  monk  crouching  in  the  capital  of  the  corresponding 
column  at  the  other  jamb  of  this  gate,  above  which  once  stood 
a  statue  of  Louis  XII.  Several  of  the  windows  of  this  front, 
ornamented  in  this  grotesque  taste,  and  now  unfortunately 
destroyed,  amused,  or  seemed  to  amuse,  Christophe,  whom  the 
gunners  of  the  Guard  were  already  pelting  with  their  pleas- 
antries. 

"He  would  like  to  be  lodged  there,  he  would,"  said  the 
sergeant-at-arms,  patting  his  store  of  charges  for  his  musket, 
which  hung  from  his  belt  in  the  sugar-loaf -shaped  cartridges. 

"Hallo,  you  from  Paris,  you  never  saw  so  much  before !" 
said  a  soldier. 

"He  recognizes  good  King  Louis !"  said  another, 

Christophe  affected  not  to  hear  them,  and  tried  to  look 
even  more  helplessly  amazed,  so  that  his  look  of  blank 
stupidity  was  an  excellent  recommendation  to  Pardaillan. 

"The  Queen  is  not  yet  risen,"  said  the  young  officer. 
"Come  and  wait  in  the  guardroom." 

Christophe  slowly  followed  Pardaillan.  He  purposely  lin-, 
gered  to  admire  the  pretty  covered  balcony  with  an  arched 
front,  where,  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XII.,  the  courtiers  could 
wait  under  cover  till  the  hour  of  reception  if  the  weather 
was  bad,  and  where  at  this  moment  some  of  the  gentlemen 
attached  to  the  Guises  were  grouped;  for  the  staircase,  still 


104  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

80  well  preserved,  which  led  to  their  apartments  is  at  the  end 
of  that  gallery,  in  a  tower  of  which  the  architecture  is 
greatly  admired  by  the  curious. 

''Now,  then !  have  you  come  here  to  study  graven  images  ?" , 
cried  Pardaillan,  seeing  Lecamus  riveted  in  front  of  th». 
elegant  stonework  of  the  outer  parapet  which  unites — or 
if  you  will,  separates — the  columns  of  each  archway. 

Christophe  followed  the  young  captain  to  the  grand  staif'* 
case,  not  without  glancing  at  this  almost  Moorish-looking 
structure  from  top  to  bottom  with  an  expression  of  ecstasy., 
On  this  fine  morning  the  court  was  full  of  captains-at-arms 
and  of  courtiers  chatting  in  groups;  and  their  brilliant  cos- 
tumes gave  life  to  the  scene,  in  itself  so  bright,  for  the  mar- 
vels of  architecture  that  decorated  the  fagade  were  still  quite 
new. 

"Come  in  here,"  said  Pardaillan  to  Lecamus,  signing  to 
him  to  follow  him  through  the  carved  door  on  the  second 
floor,  which  was  thrown  open  by  a  sentry  on  his  recognizing 
Pardaillan. 

Christophe's  amazement  may  easily  be  imagined  on  enter- 
ing this  guardroom,  so  vast,  that  the  military  genius  of  our 
day  has  cut  it  across  by  a  partition  to  form  two  rooms.  It 
extends,  in  fact,  both  on  the  second  floor,  where  the  King 
lived,  and  on  the  first,  occupied  by  the  Queen-mother,  for  a 
third  of  the  length  of  the  front  towards  the  court,  and  is 
lighted  by  two  windows  to  the  left  and  two  to  the  right  of 
the  famous  staircase.  The  young  captain  made  his  way  to- 
ward the  door  leading  to  the  King's  room,  which  opened 
out  of  this  hall,  and  desired  one  of  the  pages-in-waiting  to 
tell  Madame  Dayelle,  one  of  the  Queen's  ladies,  that  the  fur-t 
rier  was  in  the  guardroom  with  her  surcoats. 
j  At  a  sign  from  Pardaillan,  Christophe  went  to  stand  by  the 
side  of  an  officer  seated  on  a  low  stool  in  the  corner  of  a  chim- 
ney-place as  large  as  his  father's  shop,  at  one  end  of  this  vast 
hall  opposite  another  exactly  like  it  at  the  other  end.  In 
talking  with  this  gentleman,  Christophe  succeeded  in  in- 
teresting him  ^y  telling  him  the  trivial  details  of  his  trader 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  105 

and  he  seemed  so  completely  the  craftsman,  that  the  oflScer 
volunteered  this  opinion  to  the  captain  of  the  Scotch  Guard, 
who  came  in  to  cross-question  the  lad  while  scrutinizing  him 
closely  out  of  the  corner  of  his  eye. 

Though  Christophe  Lecamus  had  had  ample  warning,  he 
still  did  not  understand  the  cold  ferocity  of  the  interested 
parties  between  whom  Chaudieu  had  bid  him  stand.  To  an 
observer  who  should  have  mastered  the  secrets  of  the  drama,, 
as  the  historian  knows  them  now,  it  would  have  seemed 
terrible  to  see  this  young  fellow,  the  hope  of  two  families, 
risking  his  life  between  two  such  powerful  and  pitiless  ma- 
chines as  Catherine  and  the  Guises.  But  how  few  brave 
hearts  ever  know  the  extent  of  their  danger !  From  the  way 
in  which  the  quays  of  the  city  and  the  chateau  were  guarded, 
Christophe  had  expected  to  find  snares  and  spies  at  every 
step,  so  he  determined  to  conceal  the  importance  of  his  errand 
and  the  agitation  of  his  mind  under  the  stupid  tradesman's 
stare,  which  he  had  put  on  before  Pardaillan,  the  officer  of 
the  Guard,  and  the  captain. 

The  stir  which  in  a  royal  residence  attends  the  rising  of 
the  King  began  to  be  perceptible.  The  nobles,  leaving  their 
horses  with  their  pages  or  grooms  in  the  outer  court,  for  no 
one  but  the  King  and  Queen  was  allowed  to  enter  the  inner 
court  on  horseback,  were  mounting  the  splendid  stairs  in  twos 
and  threes  and  filling  the  guardroom,  a  large  room  with  two 
fireplaces — where  the  huge  mantels  are  now  bereft  of  adorn- 
ment, where  squalid  red  tiles  have  taken  the  place  of  the 
fine  mosaic  flooring,  where  royal  hangings  covered  the  rough 
walls  now  daubed  with  whitewash,  and  where  every  art  of  an; 
age  unique  in  its  splendor  was  displayed  at  its  best. 

Catholics  and  Protestants  poured  in  as  much  to  hear  the 
news  and  study  each  other's  faces  as  to  pay  their  court  to 
the  King.  His  passionate  affection  for  Mary  Stuart,  which 
neither  the  Queen-mother  nor  the  Guises  attempted  to  check, 
and  Mary's  politic  submissiveness  in  yielding  to  it,  deprived 
the  King  of  all  power ;  indeed,  though  he  was  now  seventeen, 
he  knew  nothing  of  Eoyalty  but  its  indulgences,  and  of  mar- 


106  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

riage  nothing  but  the  raptures  of  first  love.  In  point  of  fact, 
everybody  tried  to  ingratiate  himself  with  Queen  Mary  and 
her  uncles,  the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine  and  the  Grand  Master 
of  the  Household. 

All  this  bustle  went  on  under  the  eyes  of  Christophe,  who 
watched  each  fresh  arrival  with  very  natural  excitement.  A 
magnificent  curtain,  on  each  side  of  it  a  page  and  a  yeoman 
of  the  Scotch  Guard  then  on  duty,  showed  him  the  entrance 
to  that  royal  chamber,  destined  to  be  fatal  to  the  son  of  the 
Grand  Master,  for  the  younger  Balafre  fell  dead  at  the  foot 
of  the  bed  now  occupied  by  Mary  Stuart  and  Francis  II. 
The  Queen's  ladies  occupied  the  chimney-place  opposite  to 
that  where  Christophe  was  still  chatting  with  the  captain  of 
the  Guard.  This  fireplace,  by  its  position,  was  the  seat  of 
honor,  for  it  is  built  into  the  thick  wall  of  the  council-room, 
between  the  door  into  the  royal  chamber  and  that  into  the 
council-room,  so  that  the  ladies  and  gentlemen  who  had  a 
right  to  sit  there  were  close  to  where  the  King  and  the 
Queens  must  pass.  The  courtiers  were  certain  to  see  Cath- 
erine; for  her  maids  of  honor,  in  mourning,  like  the  rest  of 
the  Court,  came  up  from  her  rooms  conducted  by  the  Count- 
ess Fieschi,  and  took  their  place  on  the  side  next  the  council- 
room,  facing  those  of  the  young  Queen,  who,  led  by  the  Duch- 
esse  de  Guise,  took  the  opposite  angle  next  the  royal  bed- 
chamber. 

Between  the  courtiers  and  the  young  ladies,  all  belonging 
to  the  first  families  in  the  kingdom,  a  space  was  kept  of  some 
few  paces,  which  none  but  the  greatest  nobles  were  permitted 
to  cross.  The  Countess  Fieschi  and  the  Duchesse  de  Guise 
were  allowed  by  right  of  office  to  be  seated  in  the  midst  of 
their  noble  charges,  who  all  remained  standing. 

One  of  the  first  to  mingle  with  these  dangerous  bevies 
was  the  Due  de  Orleans,  the  King's  brother,  who  came  down 
from  his  rooms  above,  attended  by  his  tutor.  Monsieur  de 
Cypierre.  This  young  Prince,  who  was  destined  to  reign  be- 
fore the  end  of  the  year,  under  the  name  of  Charles  IX., 
at  the  age  of  ten  was  excessively  shy.    The  Due  d'Anjou  and 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  107 

the  Due  d'Alengon,  his  two  brothers,  and  the  infant  Princess 
Marguerite,  who  became  the  wife  of  Henri  IV.,  were  still 
too  young  to  appear  at  Court,  and  remained  in  their  mother's 
apartments.  The  Due  d'Orleans,  richly  dressed  in  the  fashion 
of  the  time,  in  silk  trunk  hose,  a  doublet  of  cloth  of  gold, 
brocaded  with  flowers  in  black,  and  a  short  cloak  of  em- 
broidered velvet,  all  black,  for  he  was  still  in  mourning  for 
the  late  King  his  father,  bowed  to  the  two  elder  ladies,  and 
joined  the  group  of  his  mother's  maids  of  honor.  Strongly 
^disliking  the  Guisards  (the  adherents  of  the  Guises),  he  re- 
plied coldly  to  the  Duchess'  greeting,  and  went  to  lean  his 
elbow  on  the  back  of  the  Countess  Fieschi's  tall  chair. 

His  tutor.  Monsieur  de  Cypierre,  one  of  the  finest  char- 
acters of  that  age,  stood  behind  him  as  a  shield.  Amyot, 
in  a  simple  abbe's  gown,  also  attended  the  Prince;  he  was 
his  instructor  as  well  as  being  the  teacher  of  the  three  other 
royal  children,  whose  favor  was  afterwards  so  advantageous 
to  him. 

Between  this  chimney-place  "of  honor"  and  that  at  the 
further  end  of  the  hall — where  the  Guards  stood  in  groups 
with  their  captain,  a  few  courtiers,  and  Christophe  carrying 
his  box — the  Chancellor  Olivier,  I'Hopital's  patron  and  prede- 
cessor, in  the  costume  worn  ever  since  by  the  Chancellors 
of  France^  was  walking  to  and  fro  with  Cardinal  de  Tour- 
non,  who  had  just  arrived  from  Eome,  and  with  whom  he 
exchanged  a  few  phrases  in  murmurs.  On  them  was  centered 
the  general  attention  of  the  gentlemen  packed  against  the 
wall  dividing  the  hall  from  the  King's  bedroom,  standing 
like  a  living  tapestry  against  the  rich  figured  hangings.  In 
spite  of  the  serious  state  of  affairs,  the  Court  presented  the 
same  appearance  as  every  Court  must,  in  every  country, 
at  every  time,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  greatest  perils.  Cour- 
tiers always  talk  of  the  most  trivial  subjects  while  thinking 
of  the  gravest,  jesting  while  watching  every  physiognomy, 
and  considering  questions  of  love  and  marriage  with  heiresses 
in  the  midst  of  the  most  sanguinary  catastrophes. 

"What  did  you  think  of  yesterday's  fete?"  asked  Bour- 


168  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

deilles,  the  Lord  of  Brantome,  going  up  to  Mademoiselle 
de  Piennes,  one  of  the  elder  Queen's  maids  of  honor. 

"Monsieur  du  Baif  and  Monsieur  du  Bellay  had  had  the 
most  charming  ideas,"  said  she,  pointing  to  the  two  gentle- 
men who  had  arranged  everything,  and  who  were  standing 
close  at  hand.  "I  thought  it  in  atrocious  taste,"  she  added  in 
a  whisper. 

"You  had  no  part  in  it?"  said  Miss  Lewiston  from  the 
other  side. 

"What  are  you  reading,  madame  ?"  said  Amyot  to  Madame 
Fieschi. 

"Amadis  de  Gaule,  by  the  Seigneur  des  Essarts,  purveyor- 
in-ordinary  to  the  King's  Artillery." 

"A  delightful  work,"  said  the  handsome  girl,  who  became 
famous  as  la  Fosseuse,  when  she  was  lady-in-waiting  to 
Queen  Margaret  of  Navarre. 

"The  style  is  quite  new,"  remarked  Amyot.  "Shall  you 
adopt  such  barbarisms?"  he  asked,  turning  to  Brantome. 

"The  ladies  like  it !  What  is  to  be  said  ?"  cried  Bran- 
tome,  going  forward  to  bow  to  Madame  de  Guise,  who  had  in 
her  hand  Boccaccio's  Famous  Ladies.  "There  must  be  some 
ladies  of  your  House  there,  madame,"  said  he.  "But  Master 
Boccaccio's  mistake  was  that  he  did  not  live  in  these  days; 
he  would  have  found  ample  matter  to  enlarge  his  volumes." 

"How  clever  Monsieur  de  Brantome  is !"  said  the  beautiful 
Mademoiselle  de  Limeuil  to  the  Countess  Fieschi.  "He  came 
first  to  us,  but  he  will  stay  with  the  Guises." 

"Hush!"  said  Madame  Fieschi,  looking  at  the  fair 
Limeuil.    "Attend  to  what  concerns  you " 

The  young  lady  turned  to  the  door.  She  was  expecting 
Sardini,  an  Italian  nobleman,  whom,  subsequently,  she  made 
marry  her  after  a  little  accident  that  overtook  her  in  the 
Queen's  dressing-room,  and  which  procured  her  the  honor 
of  having  a  queen  for  her  midwife. 

"By  Saint  Alipantin,  Mademoiselle  Davila  seems  to  grow 
prettier  every  morning,"  said  Monsieur  de  Robertet,  Secre- 
tary of  State,  as  he  bowed  to  the  Queen-mother's  ladies. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  109 

The  advent  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  though  he  was  ex- 
actly as  important  as  a  Cabinet  Minister  in  these  days,  made 
no  sensation  whatever. 

"If  you  think  that,  monsieur,  do  lend  me  the  epigram 
against  Messieurs  de  Guise ;  I  know  you  have  it,"  said  Made- 
moiselle Davila  to  Robertet. 

"I  have  it  no  longer,"  replied  the  Secretary,  going  across 
to  speak  to  Madame  de  Guise. 

)     "I  have  it,"  said  the  Comte  de  Grammont  to  Mademoiselle 
Davila;  "but  I  will  lend  it  you  on  only  one  condition." 

"On  condition ?     For  shame  !"  said  Madame  Fieschi, 

"You  do  not  know  what  I  want,"  replied  Grammont. 

"Oh,  that  is  easy  to  guess,"  said  la  Limeuil. 

The  Italian  custom  of  calling  ladies,  as  French  peasants 
call  their  wives,  la  Such-an-one,  was  at  that  time  the  fashion 
at  the  Court  of  France. 

"You  are  mistaken,"  the  Count  replied  eagerly;  "what  I 
ask  is,  that  a  letter  should  be  delivered  to  Mademoiselle  de 
Matha,  one  of  the  maids  on  the  other  side — a  letter  from 
my  cousin  de  Jarnac." 

"Do  not  compromise  my  maids ;  I  will  give  it  her  myself," 
said  the  Countess  Fieschi.  "Have  you  heard  any  news  of 
what  is  going  on  in  Flanders  ?"  she  asked  Cardinal  de  Tour- 
non.  "Monsieur  d'Egmont  is  at  some  new  pranks,  it  would 
seem." 

"He  and  the  Prince  of  Orange,"  said  Cypierre,  with  a 
highly  expressive  shrug. 

"The  Duke  of  Alva  and  Cardinal  de  Granvelle  are  going 
there,  are  they  not,  monsieur?"  asked  Amyot  of  Cardinal 
de  Tournon,  who  stood,  uneasy  and  gloomy,  between  the 
two  groups  after  his  conversation  with  the  Chancellor. 
'  "We,  happily,  are  quiet,  and  have  to  defy  heresy  only  on  the 
stage,"  said  the  young  Duke,  alluding  to  the  part  he  had 
played  the  day  before,  that  of  a  Knight  subduing  a  Hydra 
with  the  word  "Reformation"  on  its  brow. 

Catherine  de'  Medici,  agreeing  on  this  point  with  her 
daughter-in-law,  had   allowed   a  theatre  to  be   constructed 


no  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE*  MEDICI 

in  the  great  hall,  which  was  subsequently  used  for  the  meet- 
ings of  the  States  at  Blois,  the  hall  between  the  buildings 
of  Louis  XII.  and  those  of  Francis  I. 

The  Cardinal  made  no  reply,  and  resumed  his  walk  in  the 
middle  of  the  hall,  talking  in  a  low  voice  to  Monsieur  de 
Eobertet  and  the  Chancellor.  Many  persons  know  nothing 
of  the  difficulties  that  Secretaryships  of  State,  now  trans- 
formed into  Cabinet  Ministries,  met  with  in  the  course  of 
their  establishment,  and  how  hard  the  Kings  of  France 
found  it  to  create  them.  At  that  period  a  Secretary  like 
Eobertet  was  merely  a  clerk,  of  hardly  any  account  among 
the  princes  and  magnates  who  settled  the  affairs  of  State. 
There  were  at  that  time  no  ministerial  functionaries  but  the 
Superintendent  of  Finance,  the  Chancellor,  and  the  Keeper 
of  the  King's  Seals.  The  King  granted  a  seat  in  the  Council, 
by  letters  patent,  to  such  of  his  subjects  as  might,  in  his 
opinion,  give  useful  advice  in  the  conduct  of  public  affairs. 
A  seat  in  the  Council  might  be  given  to  a  president  of  a  law 
court  in  the  Parlement,  to  a  bishop,  to  an  untitled  favorite. 
Once  admitted  to  the  Council,  the  subject  strengthened  his 
position  by  getting  himself  appointed  to  one  of  the  Crown 
offices  to  which  a  salary  was  attached — the  government  of  a 
province,  a  constable's  sword,  a  marshal's  baton,  the  com- 
mand of  the  Artillery,  the  post  of  High  Admiral,  the  colo- 
nelcy of  some  military  corps,  the  captaincy  of  the  galleys — or 
often  some  function  at  Court,  such  as  that  of  Grand  Master  of 
the  Household,  then  held  by  the  Due  de  Guise. 

"Do  you  believe  that  the  Due  de  Nemours  will  marry 
Frangoise?"  asked  Madame  de  Guise  of  the  Due  d'Orleans' 
instructor. 

'indeed,  madame,  I  know  nothing  but  Latin,"  was  the 
reply.  i 

This  made  those  smile  who  were  near  enough  to  hear  it. 
Just  then  the  seduction  of  Frangoise  de  Rohan  by  the  Due 
de  Nemours  was  the  theme  of  every  conversation ;  but  as  the 
Due  de  Nemours  was  cousin  to  the  King,  and  also  allied 
to  the  House  of  Valois  through  his  mother,  the  Guises  re- 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  111 

garded  him  as  seduced  rather  than  as  a  seducer.  The  in- 
fluence of  the  House  of  Rohan  was,  however,  so  great,  that 
after  Francis  II.'s  death  the  Due  de  Nemours  was  obliged  to 
quit  France  in  consequence  of  the  lawsuit  brought  against 
him  by  the  Eohans,  which  was  compromised  by  the  offices 
of  the  Guises.  His  marriage  to  the  Duchesse  de  Guise, 
after  Poltrot's  assassination,  may  account  for  the  Duchess' 
question  to  Amyot,  by  explaining  some  rivalry,  no  doubt,, 
between  her  and  Mademoiselle  de  Rohan. 

"Look,  pray,  at  that  party  of  malcontents,"  said  the  Comte' 
de  Grammont,  pointing  to  Messieurs  de  Coligny,  Cardinal  de 
Chatillon,  Danville,  There,  Moret,  and  several  other  gentle- 
men suspected  of  meddling  in  the  Reformation,  who  were 
standing  all  together  between  two  windows  at  the  lower  end 
of  the  hall. 

"The  Huguenots  are  on  the  move,"  said  Cypierre.  "We 
know  that  Theodore  de  Beze  is  at  Nerac  to  persuade  the 
Queen  of  Navarre  to  declare  herself  on  their  side  by  publicly 
renouncing  the  Catholic  faith,"  he  added,  with  a  glance  at 
the  Bailli  d'Orleans,  who  was  Chancellor  to  the  Queen  of 
Navarre,  and  a  keen  observer  of  the  Court. 

"She  will  do  it,"  said  the  Bailli  d'Orleans  drily. 

This  personage,  the  Jacques  Coeur  of  his  day,  and  one  of 
the  richest  middle-class  men  of  his  time,  was  named  Groslot, 
and  was  envoy  from  Jeanne  d'Albret  to  the  French  Court. 

"Do  you  think  so?"  said  the  Chancellor  of  France  to  the 
Chancellor  of  Navarre,  quite  understanding  the  full  import 
of  Groslot's  remark. 

"Don't  you  know,"  said  the  rich  provincial,  "that  the 
Queen  of  Navarre  has  nothing  of  the  woman  in  her  but  her 
sex?  She  is  devoted  to  none  but  manly  things;  her  mind 
is  strong  in  important  matters,  and  her  heart  undaunted  by| 
the  greatest  adversities." 

"Monsieur  le  Cardinal,"  said  the  Chancellor  Olivier  to 
Monsieur  de  Tournon,  who  had  heard  Groslot,  "what  do 
you  think  of  such  boldness  ?" 

"The  Queen  of  Navarre  does  well  to  choose  for  her  Chan- 


112  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

cellor  a  man  from  whom  the  House  of  Lorraine  will  need 
to  borrow,  and  who  offers  the  King  his  house  when  there  is 
a  talk  of  moving  to  Orleans/'  replied  the  Cardinal. 

The  Chancellor  and  the  Cardinal  looked  at  each  other, 
not  daring  to  speak  their  thoughts;  but  Eobertet  expressed 
them,  for  he  thought  it  necessary  to  make  a  greater  display 
of  devotion  to  the  Guises  than  these  great  men,  since  he  was 
so  far  beneath  them. 

"It  is  most  unfortunate  that  the  House  of  Navarre,  instead 
of  abjuring  the  faith  of  their  fathers,  do  not  abjure  the 
spirit  of  revenge  and  rebellion  inspired  by  the  Connetable 
de  Bourbon.  We  shall  see  a  repetition  of  the  wars  of  the 
Armagnacs  and  the  Bourguignons." 

"No,"  said  Groslot,  "for  there  is  something  of  Louis  XI.  in. 
the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine." 

"And  in  Queen  Catherine  too,"  observed  Eobertet. 

At  this  moment  Madame  Dayelle,  Mary  Stuart's  favorite 
waiting-woman,  crossed  the  room,  and  went  to  the  Queen's 
chamber.  The  appearance  of  the  waiting-woman  made  a 
little  stir. 

*^e  shall  be  admitted  directly,"  said  Madame  Fieschi. 

"I  do  not  think  so,"  said  the  Duchesse  de  Guise.  "Their 
Majesties  will  come  out,  for  a  State  Council  is  to  be  held." 

La  Dayelle  slipped  into  the  royal  chamber  after  scratching 
at  the  door,  a  deferential  custom  introduced  by  Catherine 
de'  Medici,  and  adopted  by  the  French  Court. 

*^hat  is  the  weather  like,  my  dear  Dayelle  ?"  asked  Queen 
Mary,  putting  her  fair  fresh  face  out  between  the  curtains. 

"Oh!  madame " 

"What  is  the  matter,  Dayelle  ?  You  might  have  the  bow- 
men at  your  heels " 

"Oh!  madame — is  the  King  still  sleeping?" 
(     "Yes." 

•  *^e  are  to  leave  the  castle,  and  Monsieur  le  Cardinal  de- 
sired me  to  tell  you  so,  that  you  might  suggest  it  to  the 
King." 

**Do  you  know  why,  my  good  Dayelle?" 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  113 

"The  Eeformers  mean  to  carry  you  off." 

"Oh,  this  new  religion  leaves  me  no  peace !  I  dreamed 
last  night  that  I  was  in  prison — I  who  shall  wear  the  united 
crowns  of  the  three  finest  kingdoms  in  the  world." 

"Indeed!  but,  madame,  it  was  only  a  dream." 

"Carried  off!  That  would  be  rather  amusing. — But  for 
the  sake  of  religion,  and  by  heretics — horrible!" 

The  Queen  sprang  out  of  bed  and  seated  herself  in  front 
of  the  fireplace  in  a  large  chair  covered  with  red  velvet,  after 
wrapping  herself  in  a  loose  black  velvet  gown  handed  to  her 
by  Dayelle,  which  she  tied  about  the  waist  with  a  silken 
cord.  Dayelle  lighted  the  fire,  for  the  early  May  mornings 
are  cool  on  the  banks  of  the  Loire. 

"Then  did  my  uncles  get  this  news  in  the  course  of  the 
night?"  the  Queen  inquired  of  Dayelle,  with  whom  she  was 
on  familiar  terms. 

"Early  this  morning  Messieurs  de  Guise  were  walking  on 
the  terrace  to  avoid  being  overheard,  and  received  there  some 
messengers  arriving  in  hot  haste  from  various  parts  of  the 
kingdom  where  the  Eeformers  are  busy.  Her  Highness  the 
Queen-mother  went  out  with  her  Italians  hoping  to  be  con- 
sulted, but  she  was  not  invited  to  join  the  council." 

"She  must  be  furious." 

"All  the  more  so  because  she  had  a  little  wrath  left  over 
from  yesterday,"  replied  Dayelle.  "They  say  she  was  far 
from  rejoiced  by  the  sight  of  your  Majesty  in  your  dress  of 
woven  gold  and  your  pretty  veil  of  tan-colored  crape " 

"Leave  us  now,  my  good  Dayelle;  the  King  is  waking. 
Do  not  let  any  one  in,  not  even  those  who  have  the  entree. 
There  are  matters  of  State  in  hand,  and  my  uncles  will  noti 
disturb  us."  ' 

"Why,  my  dear  Mary,  are  you  out  of  bed  already?  Is  it 
daylight?"  said  the  young  King,  rousing  himself. 

"My  dear  love,  while  we  were  sleeping,  malignants  have 
been  wide  awake,  and  compel  us  to  leave  this  pleasant  home." 

"What  do  you  mean  by  malignants,  my  sweetheart?  Did 
we  not  have  the  most  delightful  festival  last  evening  but  for 


114  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

the  Latin  which  those  gentlemen  insisted  on  dropping  into 
our  good  French  ?" 

"Oh !"  said  Mary,  "that  is  in  the  best  taste,  and  Eabelais 
brought  Latin  into  fashion." 

"Ah!  you  are  so  learned,  and  I  am  only  sorry  not  to  be 
able  to  do  you  honor  in  verse.  If  I  were  not  King,  I  would 
take  back  Master  Amyot  from  my  brother,  who  is  being  made 
80  wise " 

"You  have  nothing  to  envy  your  brother  for;  he  writes 
verses  and  shows  them  to  me,  begging  me  to  show  him  mine. 
Be  content,  you  are  by  far  the  best  of  the  four,  and  will  be 
as  good  a  king  as  you  are  a  charming  lover.  Indeed,  that 
perhaps  is  the  reason  your  mother  loves  you  so  little.  But  be 
easy;  I,  dear  heart,  will  love  you  for  all  the  world." 

"It  is  no  great  merit  in  me  to  love  such  a  perfect  Queen,** 
said  the  young  King.  "I  do  not  know  what  hindered  me 
from  embracing  you  before  the  whole  Court  last  night,  when 
you  danced  the  hranle  with  tapers.  I  could  see  how  all  the 
women  looked  serving- wenches  by  you,  my  sweet  Marie!" 

"For  plain  prose  your  language  is  charming,  my  dear 
heart :  it  is  love  that  speaks,  to  be  sure.  And,  you  know,  my 
dear,  that  if  you  were  but  a  poor  little  page,  I  should  still  love 
you  just  as  much  as  I  now  do,  and  yet  it  is  a  good  thing  to  be 
able  to  say,  'My  sweetheart  is  a  King !' " 

"Such  a  pretty  arm !  Why  must  we  get  dressed  ?  I  like 
to  push  my  fingers  through  your  soft  hair  and  tangle  your 
golden  curls.  Listen,  pretty  one;  I  will  not  allow  you  to 
let  your  women  kiss  your  fair  neck  and  your  pretty  shoulders 
any  more!  I  am  jealous  of  the  Scotch  mists  for  having 
touched  them." 

"Will  you  not  come  to  see  my  beloved  country?  The  Scotch 
,would  love  you,  and  there  would  be  no  rebellions,  as  there 
'are  here." 

"Who  rebels  in  our  kingdom?"  said  Frangois  de  Valois, 
wrapping  himself  in  his  gown,  and  drawing  his  wife  on  to  his 
knee. 

"Yes,  this  is  very  pretty  play,"  said  she,  withdrawing  her 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  113 

cheek  from  his  kiss.    "But  you  have  to  reign,  if  you  please, 
my  liege." 

"Who  talks  of  reigning  ? — This  morning  I  want  to *' 

"Need  you  say  'I  want  to/  when  you  can  do  what  you 
will  ? — That  is  the  language  of  neither  king  nor  lover.  How- 
ever, that  is  not  the  matter  on  hand — we  have  important 
business  to  attend  to." 

"Oh !"  said  the  King,  "it  is  a  long  time  since  we  have  had 
any  business  to  do. — Is  it  amusing?" 

"Not  at  all,"  said  Mary ;  "we  must  make  a  move." 

"I  will  wager,  my  pretty  one,  that  you  have  seen  one  of 
your  uncles,  who  manage  matters  so  well  that,  at  seventeen, 
I  am  a  King  only  in  name.  I  really  know  not  why,  since  the 
first  Council,  I  have  ever  sat  at  one ;  they  could  do  everything 
quite  as  well  by  setting  a  crown  on  my  chair ;  I  see  everything 
through  their  eyes,  and  settle  matters  blindfold." 

"Indeed,  monsieur,"  said  the  Queen,  standing  up  and  as- 
suming an  air  of  annoyance,  "you  had  agreed  never  again 
to  give  me  the  smallest  trouble  on  that  score,  but  to  leave 
my  uncles  to  exercise  your  royal  power  for  the  happiness  of 
your  people.  A  nice  people  they  are!  Why,  if  you  tried 
to  govern  them  unaided,  they  would  swallow  you  whole  like 
a  strawberry.  They  need  warriors  to  rule  them — a  stem 
master  gloved  with  iron ;  while  you — ^you  are  a  charmer  whom 
I  love  just  as  you  are,  and  should  not  love  if  you  were 
different — do  you  hear,  my  lord?"  she  added,  bending  down 
to  kiss  the  boy,  who  seemed  inclined  to  rebel  against  this 
speech,  but  who  was  mollified  by  the  caress. 

"Oh,  if  only  they  were  not  your  uncles!"  cried  Francis. 
"I  cannot  endure  that  Cardinal;  and  when  he  puts  on  his 
insinuating  air  and  his  submissive  ways,  and  says  to  me  with 
a  bow,  'Sire,  the  honor  of  the  Crown  and  the  faith  of  your 

fathers  is  at  stake,  your  Majesty  will  never  allow '  and 

this  and  that — I  am  certain  he  toils  for  nothing  but  his 
cursed  House  of  Lorraine." 

"Hovr  well  you  mimic  him !"  cried  the  Queen.  '•'But  why 
do  you  not  make  these  Guises  inform  you  of  what  is  going 


116  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

forward,  so  as  to  govern  by  and  by  on  your  own  account 
when  you  are  of  full  age  ?  I  am  your  wife,  and  your  honor 
is  mine.  We  will  reign,  sweetheart — never  fear!  But  all 
will  not  be  roses  for  us  till  we  are  free  to  please  ourselves. 
There  is  nothing  so  hard  for  a  King  as  to  govern ! 

"Am  I  the  Queen  now,  I  ask  you?  Do  you  think  that 
your  mother  ever  fails  to  repay  me  in  evil  for  what  good 
my  uncles  may  do  for  the  glory  of  your  throne  ?  And  mark 
the  difference !  My  uncles  are  great  princes,  descendants 
of  Charlemagne,  full  of  goodwill,  and  ready  to  die  for  you; 
while  this  daughter  of  a  leech,  or  a  merchant.  Queen  of 
France  by  a  mere  chance,  is  as  shrewish  as  a  citizen's  wife 
who  is  not  mistress  in  her  house.  The  Italian  woman  is 
provoked  that  she  cannot  set  ever}'  one  by  the  ears,  and  she 
is  always  coming  to  me  with  her  pale,  solemn  face,  and 
then  with  her  pinched  lips  she  begins:  'Daughter,  you  are 
the  Queen;  I  am  only  the  second  lady  in  the  kingdom' — she 
is  furious,  you  see,  dear  heart — 'but  if  I  were  in  your  place, 
I  would  not  wear  crimson  velvet  while  the  Court  is  in  mourn- 
ing, and  I  would  appear  in  public  with  my  hair  plainly 
dressed  and  with  no  jewels,  for  what  is  unseemly  in  any  lady 
is  even  more  so  in  a  queen.  Nor  would  I  dance  myself;  I 
would  only  see  others  dance !'  That  is  the  kind  of  thing  she 
says  to  me." 

"Oh,  dear  Heaven!"  cried  the  King,  "I  can  hear  her  I 
Mercy,  if  she  only  knew " 

"Why,  you  still  quake  before  her.  She  wearies  you — say 
so?  We  will  send  her  away.  By  my  faith,  that  she  should 
deceive  you  might  be  endured,  but  to  be  so  tedious " 

"In  Heaven's  name,  be  silent,  Marie,"  said  the  King,  at 
once  alarmed  and  delighted.  "I  would  not  have  you  lose  her 
favor." 

"Never  fear  that  she  will  quarrel  with  me,  with  the  three 
finest  crowns  in  the  world  on  my  head,  my  little  King,"  said 
Mary  Stuart.  "Even  though  she  hates  me  for  a  thousand 
reasons,  she  flatters  me,  to  win  me  from  my  uncles." 

"Hates  you?" 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  117 

'TTes,  my  angel !  And  if  I  had  not  a  thousand  such  proofs 
as  women  can  give  each  other,  and  such  as  women  only 
can  understand,  her  persistent  opposition  to  our  happy  love- 
making  would  be  enough.  Now,  is  it  my  fault  if  your  father 
could  never  endure  Mademoiselle  de'  Medici?  In  short,  she 
likes  me  so  little,  that  you  had  to  be  quite  in  a  rage  to  pre- 
vent our  having  separate  sets  of  rooms  here  and  at  Saint- 
Germain.  She  declared  that  it  was  customary  for  the  Kings 
and  Queens  of  France.  Customary ! — It  was  your  father's 
custom;  that  is  quite  intelligible.  As  to  your  grandfather, 
Francis,  the  good  man  established  the  practice  for  the  con- 
venience of  his  love  affairs.  So  be  on  j'^our  guard;  if  we  are 
obliged  to  leave  this  place,  do  not  let  the  Grand  Master 
divide  us." 

"If  we  leave?  But  I  do  not  intend  to  leave  this  pretty 
chateau,  whence  we  see  the  Loire  and  all  the  country  around 
— a  town  at  our  feet,  the  brightest  sky  in  the  world  above  us, 
and  these  lovely  gardens.  Or  if  I  go,  it  will  be  to  travel  with 
you  in  Italy  and  see  Raphael's  pictures  and  Saint-Peter's  at 
Eome." 

"And  the  orange-trees.  Ah,  sweet  little  King,  if  you  could 
know  how  your  Mary  longs  to  walk  under  orange-trees  in 
flower  and  fruit !  Alas  !  I  may  never  see  one  !  Oh !  to  hear 
an  Italian  song  under  those  fragrant  groves,  on  the  shore  of 
a  blue  sea,  under  a  cloudless  sky,  and  to  clasp  each  other 
thus ! " 

"Let  us  be  off,"  said  the  King. 

"Be  off !"  cried  the  Grand  Master,  coming  in.  "Yes,  Sire, 
you  must  be  off  from  Blois.  Pardon  my  boldness;  but  cir- 
cumstances overrule  etiquette,  and  I  have  come  to  beg  you 
to  call  a  Council." 

Mary  and  Francis  had  started  apart  on  being  thus  taken 
by  surprise,  and  they  both  wore  the  same  expression  of 
offended  sovereign  Majesty. 

"You  are  too  much  the  Grand  Master,  Monsieur  de  Guise," 
»aid  the  young  King,  suppressing  his  wrath. 
—9 


118  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

"Devil  take  lovers !"  muttered  the  Cardinal  in  Catherine's 
ear. 

"My  son,"  replied  the  Queen-mother,  appearing  behind 
the  Cardinal,  "the  safety  of  your  person  is  at  stake  as  well  as 
of  your  kingdom." 

"Heresy  was  awake  while  you  slept,  Sire,"  said  the  Car- 
dinal. 

"Withdraw  into  the  hall,"  said  the  little  King;  "we  will 
;hold  a  Council," 

"Madame,"  said  the  Duke  to  the  Queen,  "your  furrier's 
son  has  come  with  some  furs  which  are  seasonable  for  your 
journey,  as  we  shall  probably  ride  by  the  Loire. — But  he  also 
wishes  to  speak  with  madame,"  he  added,  turning  to  the 
Queen-mother.  "While  the  King  is  dressing,  would  you  and 
Her  Majesty  dismiss  him  forthwith,  so  that  this  trifle  may 
no  further  trouble  us." 

*With  pleasure,"  replied  Catherine;  adding  to  herself,  "If 
he  thinks  to  be  rid  of  me  by  such  tricks,  he  little  knows  me." 

The  Cardinal  and  the  Duke  retired,  leaving  the  two  Queens 
with  the  King.  As  he  went  through  the  guardroom  to  go 
to  the  council-chamber,  the  Grand  Master  desired  the  usher 
to  bring  up  the  Queen's  furrier. 

When  Christophe  saw  this  official  coming  towards  him 
from  one  end  of  the  room  to  the  other,  he  took  him,  from  his 
dress,  to  be  some  one  of  importance,  and  his  heart  sank 
within  him;  but  this  sensation,  natural  enough  at  the  ap- 
proach of  a  critical  moment,  became  sheer  terror  when  the 
usher,  whose  advance  had  the  effect  of  directing  the  eyes  of 
the  whole  splendid  assembly  to  Christophe  with  his  bundles 
and  his  abject  looks,  said  to  him : 

"Their  Highnesses  the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine  and  the 
Grand  Master  desire  to  speak  to  you  in  the  council-room." 

"Has  any  one  betrayed  me  ?"  was  the  thought  of  this  hap- 
less envoy  of  the  Reformers. 

Christophe  followed  the  usher,  his  eyes  bent  on  the  ground, 
and  never  looked  up  till  he  found  himself  in  the  spacious 
council-room — as  large  almost  as  the  guardroom.     The  two 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  119 

Guises  were  alone,  standing  in  front  of  the  splendid  chimney- 
place  that  backed  against  that  in  the  guardroom,  where  the 
maids  of  honor  were  grouped. 

"You  have  come  from  Paris  ?  Which  road  did  you  take  ?" 
the  Cardinal  said  to  Christophe. 

"I  came  by  water,  monseigneur,"  replied  the  lad. 

"And  how  did  you  get  into  Blois  ?"  said  the  Grand  Master. 

"By  the  river  port,  monseigneur." 

"And  no  one  interfered  with  you?"  said  the  Duke,  who 
was  examining  the  young  man  closely. 

"No,  monseigneur.  I  told  the  first  soldier,  who  made  as 
though  he  would  stop  me,  that  I  had  come  on  duty  to  wait 
on  the  two  Queens,  and  that  my  father  is  furrier  to  their 
Majesties." 

"What  is  doing  in  Paris?"  asked  the  Cardinal. 

"They  are  still  trying  to  discover  the  murderer  who  killed 
President  Minard." 

"Are  not  you  the  son  of  my  surgeon's  greatest  friend?" 
asked  the  Due  de  Guise,  deceived  by  Christophe's  expression 
of  candor,  now  that  his  fears  were  allayed. 

"Yes,  monseigneur." 

The  Grand  Master  went  out,  hastily  lifted  the  curtain 
which  screened  the  double  doors  of  the  council-chamber,  and 
showed  his  face  to  the  crowd,  among  whom  he  looked  for 
the  King's  surgeon-in-chief.  Ambroise  Pare,  standing  in  a 
corner,  was  aware  of  a  glance  shot  at  him  by  the  Duke,  and 
went  to  him.  Ambroise,  already  inclined  to  the  Eeformed 
religion,  ended  by  adopting  it;  but  the  friendship  of  the 
Guises  and  of  the  French  kings  preserved  him  from  the  vari- 
ous disasters  that  befell  the  heretics.  The  Duke,  who  felt 
that  he  owed  his  life  to  Ambroise  Pare,  had  appointed  him 
surgeon-in-chief  to  the  King  within  a  few  days  past. 

*^hat  is  it,  monseigneur,"  said  the  leech.  "Is  the  King 
ill?    I  should  not  be  surprised." 

"Why?" 

*^he  Queen  is  too  fascinating,"  said  the  surgeon. 

"Ah !"  replied  the  Duke,  surprised.    "However,  that  is  not 


120  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

the  case/'  he  went  on  after  a  pause.  "Ambroise,  I  want 
you  to  see  a  friend  of  yours,"  and  he  led  him  on  to  the  thresh- 
old of  the  council-chamber  door  and  pointed  to  Christophe. 

"Ah,  to  be  sure,"  cried  the  surgeon,  holding  out  his  hand 
to  the  youth.    "How  is  your  father,  my  boy?" 

"Very  well.  Master  Ambroise,"  Christophe  replied. 

"And  what  are  you  doing  at  Court?"  Pare  went  on.  "It 
is  not  your  business  to  carry  parcels;  your  father  wants  to 
make  a  lawyer  of  you.  Do  you  want  the  protection  of  these 
two  great  Princes  to  become  a  pleader?" 

'^hy,  yes,  indeed,"  replied  Christophe,  ^Taut  for  my 
father's  saJce;  and  if  you  can  intercede  for  us,  add  your  en- 
treaties," he  went  on,  with  a  piteous  air,  "to  obtain  an  order 
from  Monseigneur  the  Grand  Master  for  the  payment  of  the 
moneys  due  to  my  father,  for  he  does  not  know  which  way 
to  turn " 

The  Cardinal  and  his  brother  looked  at  each  other,  and 
seemed  to  be  satisfied. 

"Leave  us  now,"  said  the  Grand  Master  to  Ambroise  with 
a  nod. — "And  you,  my  friend,"  he  added  to  Christophe,  "set- 
tle your  business  quickly,  and  get  back  to  Paris.  My  secretary 
will  give  you  a  pass,  for,  by  Heaven,  the  roads  will  not  be 
pleasant  to  travel  on !" 

Neither  of  the  brothers  had  the  slightest  suspicion  of  the 
important  interests  that  lay  in  Christophers  hands,  being  now 
quite  assured  that  he  was  certainly  the  son  of  Lecamus,  a 
good  Catholic,  purveyor  to  the  Court,  and  that  he  had  come 
solely  to  get  his  money. 

"Take  him  round  to  be  near  the  door  of  the  Queen's  cham- 
ber; she  will  ask  for  him  no  doubt,"  said  the  Cardinal  t(^ 
the  surgeon. 

While  the  furrier's  son  was  being  thus  cross-questioned  in 
the  council-room,  the  King  had  left  his  mother  and  the 
Queen  together,  having  gone  into  his  dressing-room,  which 
was  beyond  a  room  adjoining  the  bedroom. 

Catherine,  standing  in  the  recess  of  the  deep  window,  was 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  121 

looking  out  on  the  gardens  lost  in  melancholy  thought.  She 
foresaw  that  one  of  the  greatest  commanders  of  the  age,  in 
the  course  of  that  morning,  in  the  very  next  hour,  would 
take  the  place  of  her  son  the  King,  under  the  terrible  title 
of  Lieutenant-General  of  tne  kingdom.  In  the  face  of  such 
peril  she  was  alone,  without  a  plan,  without  defence.  In- 
deed, as  she  stood  there  in  her  mourning,  which  she  had  not 
ceased  to  wear  since  the  death  of  Henri  II.,  she  might  have 
been  compared  to  a  phantom,  so  still  were  her  pale  features 
as  she  stood  absorbed  in  thought.  Her  black  eyes  seemed 
to  wander  in  the  indecision  for  which  great  politicians  are 
so  often  blamed,  which  in  them  is  the  result  of  the  breadth 
of  sight  which  enables  them  to  see  every  dijfficulty,  and  to 
balance  one  against  the  other,  adding  up  the  sum-total  of 
risk  before  taking  a  part.  There  was  a  ringing  in  her  ears,  a 
turmoil  in  her  blood;  but  she  stood  there,  nevertheless,  calm 
and  dignified,  while  gauging  the  depths  of  the  political  abyss 
beyond  the  real  gulf  that  lay  at  her  feet. 

Since  the  day  when  the  Vidame  de  Chartres  had  been  ar- 
rested, this  was  the  second  of  those  terrible  days  of  which 
there  were  henceforth  to  be  so  many  in  the  course  of  her  royal 
career;  but  she  never  again  made  a  mistake  in  the  school  of 
power.  Though  the  sceptre  seemed  always  to  fly  from  her 
grasp,  she  meant  to  seize  it,  and,  in  fact,  did  seize  it,  by  that 
sheer  force  of  will  wliich  had  never  given  way  to  the  scorn 
of  her  father-in-law,  Francis  I.,  and  his  Court — by  whom, 
though  Dauphiness,  she  had  been  so  little  thought  of — nor 
to  the  constant  denials  of  Henri  11.,  nor  to  the  unresting 
antagonism  of  her  rival,  Diane  de  Poitiers.  A  man  would 
not  have  understood  this  Queen  in  check;  but  Mary  Stuart, 
so  fair,  so  crafty,  so  clever,  so  girlish,  and  yet  so  omniscient^ 
watched  her  out  of  the  corner  of  her  eye  while  affecting  to 
warble  an  Italian  air  with  an  indifferent  countenance.  With- 
out understanding  the  tempest  of  ambition  which  brought  a 
cold  moisture  to  the  Florentine  Queen's  brow,  the  pretty  Scotch 
girl,  with  her  saucy  face,  knew  that  the  high  position  of  her 
uncle  the  Due  de  Guise  was  filling  Catherine  with  suppressed 


122  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

fury.  Now,  nothing  amused  her  so  much  as  watching  her 
mother-in-law,  whom  she  regarded  as  an  intriguing  adven- 
turess, who,  having  been  humbled,  was  always  prepared  for 
revenge.  The  face  of -the  elder  was  grave  and  gloomy,  a 
little  cadaverous,  by  reason  of  the  livid  complexion  of  the 
Italians,  which  by  daylight  looks  like  yellow  ivory,  though 
by  candle-light  it  is  dazzling;  while  the  younger  face  was 
bright  and  fresh.  At  sixteen  Mary  Stuart  had  that  creamy 
fairness  for  which  she  was  so  famous.  Her  bright,  rosy  face,! 
with  clearly-cut  features,  sparkled  with  childish  mischief, 
very  frankly  expressed  in  the  regular  arch  of  her  brows,  the 
brightness  of  her  eyes,  and  the  pert  smile  of  her  pretty  mouth. 
She  had  then  in  perfection  that  kittenish  grace  which  nothing 
— neither  captivity  nor  the  sight  of  the  horrible  block — ever 
completely  quelled. 

Thus  these  two  Queens,  one  in  the  morning,  the  other  in 
the  summer  of  life,  were  at  this  time  a  perfect  contrast. 
Catherine  was  an  imposing  sovereign,  an  impenetrable  widow, 
with  no  passion  but  the  love  of  power.  Mary  was  a  feather- 
brained and  light-hearted  wife,  who  thought  of  her  crowns 
as  playthings.  One  looked  forward  to  impending  misfortunes ; 
she  even  had  a  glimpse  of  the  murder  of  the  Guises,  guessing 
that  this  would  be  the  only  way  to  strike  down  men  who  were 
capable  of  raising  themselves  above  the  throne  and  the  Parle- 
ment;  she  saw  rivers  of  blood  in  a  long  struggle — the  other 
little  dreamed  that  she  would  herself  be  murdered  by  form 
of  law. 

A  curious  reflection  brought  a  little  calm  to  the  Italian 
Queen. 

"According  to  the  soothsayer  and  to  Suggieri's  forecast, 
this  reign  is  soon  to  end.  My  diflScuIties  will  not  last/* 
thought  she.  i 

And  thus,  strange  to  say,  an  occult  science,  now  forgotten' 
— judicial  astrology — was  a  support  to  Catherine  at  this 
juncture,  as  it  was  throughout  her  life;  for  the  belief  grew 
constantly  from  seeing  the  predictions  of  those  who  prac- 
tised it  realized  with  the  greatest  exactitude. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  123 

'TTou  are  very  serious,  madame/'  said  Mary  Stuart,  taking 
from  Dayelle's  hands  her  little  cap,  pinched  down  over  the 
parting  of  her  hair  with  two  frilled  wings  of  handsome  lace 
beyond  the  puffs  of  wavy  yellow  hair  that  shadowed  her 
temples. 

The  painters  of  the  time  have  so  amply  perpetuated  this 
cap,  that  it  now  belongs  essentially  to  the  Queen  of  Scots, 
though  it  was  Catherine  who  invented  it  when  she  went  into' 
mourning  for  Henri  II. ;  but  she  could  not  wear  it  with  suchi 
good  effect  as  her  daughter-in-law,  to  whom  it  was  infinitely 
more  becoming.  And  this  was  not  the  smallest  of  the  griev- 
ances harbored  by  the  Queen-mother  against  the  young 
Queen. 

"Does  your  Majesty  mean  that  for  a  reproof?"  said  Cath- 
erine, turning  to  her  daughter-in-law. 

"I  owe  respect,  and  should  not  dare "  said  the  Scotch- 
woman meaningly,  with  a  glance  at  Dayelle. 

Between  the  two  Queens  the  favorite  waiting-woman  stood 
like  the  figure-head  on  a  fire-dog;  an  approving  smile  might 
cost  her  her  life. 

"How  can  I  be  as  gay  as  you  after  losing  the  late  King, 
and  when  I  see  my  son's  kingdom  on  the  eve  of  a  conflagra- 
tion?" 

"Politics  do  not  much  concern  women,"  replied  Mary 
Stuart.    "Besides,  my  uncles  are  there." 

These  two  sentences,  in  the  circumstances,  were  two  poi- 
soned arrows. 

"Let  us  see  our  furs  then,"  the  Italian  replied,  "and  so 
turn  our  minds  to  our  own  business,  while  your  uncles  settle 
that  of  the  kingdom." 

"Oh,  but  we  shall  attend  the  Council,  madame;  we  are  of 
more  use  there  than  you  suppose." 

'^e  ?"  said  Catherine,  with  feigned  astonishment.  '%  for 
my  part,  do  not  know  Latin !" 

"You  fancy  me  so  learned?"  said  Mary  Stuart,  with  a 
laugh.  "Nay,  madame,  I  swear  to  you  that  at  this  moment 
I  am  studying  in  the  hope  of  rivaling  the  Medici  and  of 
knowing  some  day  how  to  heal  the  wounds  of  the  country." 


124  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

This  sharp  shaft  pierced  Catherine  to  the  heart,  for  it  was 
an  allusion  to  the  origin  of  the  Medici,  who  were  descended, 
as  some  said,  from  a  leech,  or,  as  others  had  it,  from  a  rich 
drug  merchant.  She  had  no  reply  ready.  Dayelle  colored 
when  her  mistress  looked  to  her  for  the  applause  which  every- 
body, and  even  queens,  expect  from  their  inferiors  when  they 
have  no  better  audience. 

"Your  witticisms,  madame,  cannot,  unfortunately,  heal 
either  the  maladies  of  the  State  or  those  of  the  Church,"  said 
Catherine,  with  calm  and  dignified  coldness.  "My  fore- 
fathers' knowledge  of  such  matters  won  them  thrones;  while 
you,  if  you  persist  in  jesting  in  the  midst  of  danger,  are  like 
enough  to  lose  yours." 

At  this  juncture  Dayelle  opened  the  door  to  Christophe, 
shown  in  by  the  chief  physician  himself  after  scratching  at 
the  door. 

The  young  Eeformer  wanted  to  study  Catherine's  counte- 
nance, and  affected  a  shyness,  which  was  natural  enough  on 
finding  himself  in  this  place ;  but  he  was  surprised  by  Mary's 
eagerness.    She  rushed  at  the  boxes  to  look  at  her  surcoat. 

"Madame,"  said  Christophe,  addressing  Catherine. 

He  turned  his  back  on  the  other  Queen  and  Dayelle, 
promptly  taking  advantage  of  the  attention  the  two  were  de- 
voting to  the  furs  to  strike  a  bold  blow. 

"What  do  you  want  of  me?"  asked  Catherine,  looking 
keenly  at  him. 

Christophe  had  placed  the  agreement  proposed  by  the 
Prince  de  Conde,  with  the  Eeformer's  plan  of  action  and  an 
account  of  their  forces,  over  his  heart,  between  his  cloth 
jerkin  and  his  shirt,  wrapped  inside  the  furrier's  bill  of  what 
Queen  Catherine  owed  him. 

"Madame,"  said  he,  "my  father  is  in  dreadful  want  of 
money,  and  if  you  would  condescend  to  look  through  the  ac- 
counts," he  added,  unfolding  the  paper  and  slipping  the 
agreement  under  it,  "you  will  see  that  your  Majesty  owes  him 
six  thousand  crowns.  May  your  goodness  have  pity  on  us! 
See,  madame." 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  125 

And  he  held  out  the  document. 

"Eead  it.  This  dates  so  far  back  as  the  accession  of  the 
late  King." 

Catherine  was  bewildered  by  the  preamble  to  the  address, 
but  she  did  not  lose  her  presence  of  mind;  she  hastily  rolled 
up  the  paper,  admiring  the  young  man's  readiness  and  daring. 
She  saw  from  these  masterly  tactics  that  he  would  understand 
her,  so  she  tapped  him  on  the  head  with  the  roll  of  paper, 
and  said: — "You  are  very  ill  advised,  my  young  friend,  in 
handing  the  bill  in  before  the  furs.  Learn  some  knowledge 
of  women !  You  must  never  ask  for  your  money  till  we  are 
perfectly  satisfied." 

"Is  that  the  tradition?"  said  the  young  Queen  to  her 
mother-in-law,  who  made  no  reply. 

"Ah,  mesdames,  excuse  my  father,"  said  Christophe.  "If 
he  had  not  wanted  the  money,  you  would  not  have  your  furs. 
The  country  is  up  in  arms,  and  there  is  so  much  danger  on 
the  roads,  that  only  our  great  need  induced  me  to  come.  No 
one  else  would  risk  his  life." 

"This  lad  is  quite  fresh,"  said  Mary  Stuart,  smiling. 

It  is  not  superfluous  to  the  better  understanding  of  this 
important  little  scene  to  remark  that  a  surcoat  was,  as  the 
name  implies,  a  sort  of  close-fitting  jacket  or  spencer  which 
ladies  wore  over  their  dress,  and  which  wrapped  them  closely, 
shaped  down  to  the  hips.  This  garment  protected  the  back, 
chest,  and  throat  from  the  cold.  Surcoats  were  lined  with 
fur  which  turned  up  over  the  stuff,  forming  a  more  or  less 
wide  border.  Mary  Stuart  while  trying  on  her  surcoat  was 
looking  at  herself  in  a  large  Venetian  mirror,  to  see  the  effect 
of  it  at  the  back;  thus  she  had  left  her  mother-in-law 
liberty  to  glance  at  the  packet  of  papers,  of  which  the  volume 
might  otherwise  have  excited  her  suspicions. 

"Does  a  man  ever  speak  to  a  lady  of  the  dangers  he  has 
incurred  when  he  is  safe  and  sound  in  her  presence  ?"  said  she, 
turning  round  on  Christophe. 

"Oh,  madame,  I  have  your  account  too,"  said  he,  looking  at 
her  with  well-acted  simplicity. 


126  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

The  young  Queen  looked  at  him  from  head  to  foot  without 
taking  the  paper ;  but  she  observed,  without  drawing  any  con- 
clusions at  the  moment,  that  he  had  taken  Queen  Catherine's 
bill  out  of  his  breast,  and  drew  hers  out  of  his  pocket.  Nor 
did  she  see  in  the  lad's  eyes  the  admiration  that  her  beauty 
won  her  from  all  the  world ;  but  she  was  thinking  so  much  of 
her  surcoat,  that  she  did  not  at  once  wonder  what  could  be 
the  cause  of  his  indifference. 

"Take  it,  Dayelle,"  said  she  to  the  waiting-woman.  "You 
can  give  the  account  to  Monsieur  de  Versailles  (Lomenie), 
and  desire  him,  from  me,  to  pay  it." 

"Indeed,  madame,  but  if  you  do  not  give  me  an  order 
signed  by  the  King,  or  by  His  Highness  the  Grand  Master, 
who  is  at  hand,  your  gracious  promise  will  have  no  effect." 

"You  are  rather  hastier  than  beseems  a  subject,  my  friend," 
said  Mary  Stuart.  "So  you  do  not  believe  in  royal  prom- 
ises?" 

The  King  came  in  dressed  in  his  long  silk  hose  and  trunks, 
the  breeches  of  the  time,  but  wore  neither  doublet  nor  cloak ; 
he  had  only  a  rich  wrapper  of  velvet  lined  throughout  with 
fur;  for  wrapper,  a  word  of  modem  use,  can  alone  describe 
the  neglige  of  this  apparel. 

"Who  is  the  rascal  that  doubts  your  word  ?"  said  the  young 
King,  who,  though  at  a  distance,  had  heard  his  wife's  speech. 

The  door  of  the  King's  closet  was  hidden  by  the  bed.  This 
closet  was  subsequently  called  the  old  closet  (le  Cabinet 
vieux)  to  distinguish  it  from  the  splendid  painted  closet  con- 
structed for  Henri  III.  on  the  other  side  of  the  room  ad- 
joining the  hall  of  the  States-General.  Henri  III.  hid  the 
assassins  in  the  old  closet,  and  sent  to  desire  the  Due  de  Guise 
to  attend  him  there;  while  he,  during  the  murder,  remained 
concealed  in  the  new  closet,  whence  he  emerged  only  to  see 
this  overweening  subject  die — a  subject  for  whom  there  could 
be  no  prison,  no  tribunal,  no  judges,  no  laws  in  the  kingdom. 
But  for  these  dreadful  events,  the  historian  could  now  hardly 
identify  the  former  uses  of  these  rooms  and  halls  filled  with 
soldiers.  A  sergeant  writes  to  his  sweetheart  on  the  spot 
vhere  Catherine  gravely  considered  her  struggle  with  parties. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  127 

"Come,  my  boy,"  said  the  Queen-mother;  "I  will  see  that 
you  are  paid.  Trade  must  flourish,  and  money  is  its  main 
sinew." 

"Ay,  go,  my  good  youth,"  said  the  young  Queen,  laughing ; 
"my  august  mother  understands  matters  of  trade  better  than 
I  do." 

Catherine  was  about  to  leave  the  room  without  replying  to 
this  innuendo;  but  it  struck  her  that  her  indifference  might 
,  arouse  suspicions,  and  she  retorted  on  her  daughter-in-law : 

^'And  you,  my  dear,  trade  in  love." 

Then  she  went  downstairs. 

"Put  all  those  things  away,  Dayelle. — And  come  to  the 
council-room.  Sire,"  said  the  young  Queen  to  the  King,  en- 
chanted at  having  to  decide  the  important  question  of  the 
lieutenancy  of  the  kingdom  in  her  mother-in-law's  absence. 

Mary  Stuart  took  the  King's  arm.  Dayelle  went  out  first, 
speaking  a  word  to  the  pages,  and  one  of  them — young 
Teligny,  fated  to  perish  miserably  on  the  night  of  Saint- 
Bartholomew — shouted  out : 

"The  King." 

On  hearing  the  cry,  the  two  musketeers  carried  arms,  and 
the  two  pages  led  the  way  towards  the  council-chamber  be- 
tween the  line  of  courtiers  on  one  side  and  the  line  formed 
by  the  maids  of  honor  to  the  two  Queens  on  the  other.  All 
the  members  of  the  Council  then  gathered  round  the  door  of 
the  hall,  which  was  at  no  great  distance  from  the  staircase. 
The  Grand  Master,  the  Cardinal,  and  the  Chancellor  ad- 
vanced to  meet  the  two  young  sovereigns,  who  smiled  to  some 
of  the  maids,  or  answered  the  inquiries  of  some  of  the  Court 
favorites  more  intimate  than  the  rest. 

The  Queen,  however,  evidently  impatient,  dragged  Francis 
II.  on  towards  the  vast  council-room.  As  soon  as  the  heavy 
thud  01  the  arquebuses  dropping  on  the  floor  again  an- 
nounced that  the  royal  pair  had  gone  in,  the  pages  put  on 
their  caps,  and  the  conversations  in  the  various  groups  took 
their  course  again  on  the  gravity  of  the  business  about  to  be 
discussed. 


128  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

"Chivemi  was  sent  to  fetch  the  Connetable,  and  he  has 
not  come,"  said  one. 

"There  is  no  prince  of  the  blood  present/'  remarked  an- 
other. 

The  Chancellor  and  Monsieur  de  Tournon  looked  anxious. 

"The  Grand  Master  has  sent  word  to  the  Keeper  of  the 
Seals  to  be  sure  not  to  fail  to  attend  this  Council;  a  good 
many  letters  patent  will  be  issued,  no  doubt."  I 

"How  is  it  that  the  Queen-mother  remains  below,  in  her 
own  rooms,  at  such  a  juncture?" 

"They  are  going  to  make  things  hot  for  us,"  said  Groslot 
to  Cardinal  de  Chatillon. 

In  short,  every  one  had  something  to  say.  Some  were 
pacing  the  room  from  end  to  end,  others  were  flitting  round 
the  maids  of  honor,  as  though  it  could  be  possible  to  catch  a 
few  words  through  a  wall  three  feet  thick,  or  two  doors  and 
the  heavy  curtains  that  screened  them. 

The  King,  seated  at  one  end  of  the  long  table  covered  with 
blue  velvet,  which  stood  in  the  middle  of  the  room,  his  young 
Queen  in  an  armchair  at  his  side,  was  waiting  for  his  mother. 
Kobertet  was  mending  his  pens.  The  two  Cardinals,  the 
Grand  Master,  the  Chancellor,  the  Keeper  of  the  Seals — ^in 
short,  the  whole  assembly,  looked  at  the  little  King,  wonder- 
ing why  he  did  not  give  the  word  for  them  all  to  be  seated. 

"Are  we  to  sit  in  council  in  the  absence  of  the  Queen- 
mother?"  the  Chancellor  asked,  addressing  the  young  King. 

The  two  Guises  ascribed  Catherine's  absence  to  some  cun- 
ning trick  of  their  niece's.  Then,  spurred  by  a  significant 
look,  the  much  daring  Cardinal  said  to  the  King: 

"Is  it  your  Majesty's  goodwill  that  we  should  proceed 
without  madame  your  mother?" 

Francis,  not  daring  to  have  an  opinion  of  his  own,  re 
plied : 

"Gentlemen,  be  seated." 

The  Cardinal  briefly  pointed  out  the  dangers  of  the  situa- 
tion. This  great  politician,  who  showed  astounding  skill 
in  this  business,  broached  the  question  of  the  lieutenancy 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  129 

amid  utter  silence.  The  young  King  was,  no  doubt,  con- 
scious of  an  awkwardness,  and  guessed  that  his  mother  had 
a  real  sense  of  the  rights  of  the  Crown,  and  a  knowledge  of 
the  danger  that  threatened  his  power,  for  he  replied  to  a 
direct  question  on  the  Cardinal's  part: 

"We  will  wait  for  my  mother." 

Enlightened  by  this  inexplicable  delay  on  Queen  Cath- 
erine's part,  Mary  Stuart  suddenly  recalled  in  a  single  flash 
of  thought  three  incidents  which  were  clear  in  her  memory. 
In  the  first  place,  the  bulk  of  the  packet  presented  to  her 
mother-in-law,  which  she  had  seen,  though  so  inattentive  at 
the  moment  (for  a  woman  who  seems  to  see  nothing  is  still 
a  lynx),  then  the  place  where  Christophe  had  carried  them 
to  separate  them  from  hers. 

"Why?"  she  said  to  herself.  And  then  she  remembered 
the  boy's  cold  look,  which  she  at  once  ascribed  to  the  Re- 
formers' hatred  of  the  Guises'  niece.  A  voice  within  her  cried, 
"Is  he  not  an  envoy  from  the  Huguenots?" 

Acting,  as  all  hasty  persons  do,  on  the  first  impulse,  she  ex- 
claimed : 

"I  myself  will  go  and  fetch  my  mother." 

She  rushed  away  and  down  the  stairs,  to  the  great  amaze- 
ment of  the  gentlemen  and  ladies  of  the  Court.  She  went 
down  to  her  mother-in-law's  rooms,  crossed  the  guardroom, 
opened  the  door  of  the  bedroom  as  stealthily  as  a  thief,  crept 
noiselessly  over  the  carpet  as  silently  as  a  shadow,  and  could 
see  her  nowhere.  Then  she  thought  she  could  surprise  her  in 
the  splendid  private  room  between  the  bedroom  and  the 
oratory.  The  arrangement  of  this  oratory  is  perfectly  recog- 
nizable to  this  day;  the  fashion  of  the  time  then  allowed 
it  to  serve  all  the  purposes  in  private  life  which  are  now 
served  by  a  boudoir. 

By  a  piece  of  good-fortune,  quite  unaccountable  when  we 
see  in  how  squalid  a  state  the  Crown  has  left  this  chateau, 
the  beautiful  paneling  of  Catherine's  closet  exists  to  this  day ; 
in  the  fine  carving  the  curious  may  still  discern  traces  of 


130  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DB'  MEDICI 

Italian  magnificence,  and  discover  the  hiding-places  the 
Queen-mother  had  contrived  there. 

A  somewhat  exact  description  of  these  curiosities  is  in- 
deed indispensable  to  a  comprehension  of  the  scene  that  took 
place  there.  The  woodwork  at  that  time  consisted  of  about  a 
hundred  and  eighty  small  oblong  panels,  of  which  a  hundred 
or  so  still  remain,  each  carved  with  a  different  design,  ob- 
viously suggested  by  the  most  elegant  Italian  arabesques. 
The  wood  is  holm-oak ;  the  red  ground  which  is  found  under 
the  coat  of  limewash,  applied  at  the  time  of  the  cholera — a 
quite  useless  precaution — shows  plainly  that  these  panels 
were  gilt;  and  in  spots  where  the  whitewash  has  rubbed  ofE 
we  see  that  some  portions  of  the  design  were  in  color,  blue, 
red,  or  green  against  the  gold  background.  The  number  of 
these  panels  shows  an  evident  intention  to  cheat  investiga- 
tion ;  but  if  there  could  be  a  doubt,  the  keeper  of  the  chateau, 
while  holding  up  Catherine's  memory  to  the  execration  of 
all  living  men,  shows  to  visitors,  at  the  bottom  of  the  panel- 
ing, and  on  a  level  with  the  floor,  a  somewhat  heavy  skirting 
which  can  be  raised,  and  under  which  there  are  a  number 
of  ingenious  springs.  By  pressing  a  knob  thus  concealed, 
the  Queen  could  open  certain  of  these  panels,  known  to  her 
alone,  behind  which  lay  a  hiding-place  of  the  same  oblong 
shape  as  the  panels,  but  of  varying  depth.  To  this  day  a 
practised  hand  would  find  it  difficult  to  detect  which  of  these 
panels  would  open  on  its  invisible  hinges;  and  when  the  eye 
was  diverted  by  the  skilfully  combined  colors  and  gilding 
that  covered  the  cracks,  it  is  easy  to  imagine  that  it  was  im- 
possible to  discover  one  or  two  panels  among  nearly  two 
hundred. 

At  the  moment  when  Mary  Stuart  laid  her  hand  on  the 
somewhat  elaborate  latch  of  the  door  to  the  closet,  the  Italian 
Queen,  having  convinced  herself  already  of  the  importance 
of  the  Prince  de  Conde  schemes,  had  just  pressed  the  spring 
hidden  by  the  skirting,  one  of  the  panels  had  fallen  open, 
and  Catherine  had  turned  to  the  table  to  take  up  the  papers 
and  hide  them,  to  turn  her  attention  to  the  safeguard  of 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  131 

the  devoted  messenger  who  had  brought  them  to  her.  When 
she  heard  the  door  open,  she  at  once  guessed  that  no  one  but 
Queen  Mary  would  venture  to  come  in  unannounced. 

"You  are  lost,"  she  said  to  Christophe,  seeing  that  she 
could  neither  hide  the  papers  nor  close  the  panel  promptly 
enough  to  preserve  the  secret  of  her  hiding-place. 

Christophe's  only  reply  was  a  sublime  look. 

"Povero  mio!"  said  Catherine,  before  turning  to  hep 
daughter-in-law.  "Treason,  madame !"  she  exclaimed.  "I 
have  them  fast !  Send  for  the  Cardinal  and  the  Duke.  And 
be  sure,"  she  added,  pointing  to  Christophe,  "that  this  fellow 
does  not  escape !" 

Thus  in  an  instant  this  masterful  woman  saw  that  it  would 
be  necessary  to  give  up  the  hapless  young  man ;  she  could  not 
hide  him,  it  was  impossible  to  help  him  to  escape;  and  be- 
sides, though  a  week  ago  he  might  have  been  saved,  now  the 
G-uises  had,  since  that  morning,  been  aware  of  the  conspiracy, 
and  they  too  must  have  the  lists  which  she  held  in  her  hand, 
and  were  drawing  all  the  Eeformers  into  a  trap.  And  so, 
pleased  at  finding  her  adversaries  in  the  mind  she  had  hoped 
for,  now  that  the  plot  had  become  knovra,  policy  required 
her  to  assume  the  merit  of  discovering  it. 

These  dreadful  considerations  flashed  through  her  mind 
in  the  brief  moment  while  the  young  Queen  was  opening  the 
door.  Mary  Stuart  stood  silent  for  an  instant.  Her  expres- 
sion lost  its  brightness  and  assumed  that  keenness  which  sus- 
picion always  gives  the  eye,  and  which  in  her  was  terrible  by 
the  sudden  contrast.  She  looked  from  Christophe  to  the 
Queen-mother,  and  from  the  Queen-mother  to  Christophe, 
with  a  glance  of  malignant  doubt.  Then  she  snatched  up  a 
bell,  which  brought  in  one  of  Catherine's  maids  of  honor. 

"Mademoiselle  du  Kouet,  send  in  the  captain  of  the  Guard," 
said  Mary  Stuart,  in  breach  of  every  law  of  etiquette,  neces- 
sarily set  aside  in  such  circumstances. 

While  the  young  Queen  gave  her  order,  Catherine  stood 
looking  at  Christophe,  as  much  as  to  say,  "Courage!"  The 
young  Keformer  understood,  and  replied  by  an  expression 
which  conveyed,  "Sacrifice  me,  as  they  have  sacrificed  me!" 


132  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

"Put  your  trust  in  me,"  Catherine  answered  by  a  gesture. 

Then  when  her  daughter-in-law  turned  upon  her,  she  was 
deeply  engaged  in  examining  the  papers. 

"YovL  are  of  the  Reformed  religion?"  said  Mary  Stuart 
to  Christophe. 

'TTes,  madame." 

"Then  I  was  not  mistaken,"  she  muttered  to  herself,  as  she 
read  in  the  young  man's  eyes  the  same  expression  in  which 
icoldness  and  aversion  lurked  behind  a  look  of  humility. 

Pardaillan  appeared  at  once,  sent  down  by  the  two  Princes 
of  Lorraine  and  the  King.  The  captain  sent  for  by  Mary 
Stuart  followed  this  young  man — a  most  devoted  adherent  of 
the  Guises. 

"Go  from  me  to  the  King,  beg  him,  with  the  Cardinal 
and  the  Grand  Master,  to  come  here  at  once,  and  tell  them 
I  would  not  take  such  a  liberty  but  that  something  of 
serious  importance  has  occurred. — Go,  Pardaillan. — And 
you,  Lewiston,  keep  guard  over  this  Reformed  traitor,"  she 
added  to  the  Scotchman  in  their  native  tongue,  pointing  to 
Christophe. 

The  two  Queens  did  not  speak  till  the  King  came.  It 
was  a  terrible  pause.  Mary  Stuart  had  shown  her  mother- 
in-law  the  whole  extent  of  the  part  her  uncles  made  her 
play;  her  unsleeping  and  habitual  distrust  stood  revealed; 
and  her  youthful  conscience  felt  how  disgraceful  such  a  part 
must  be  to  a  great  Queen.  Catherine,  on  her  side,  had  be- 
trayed herself  in  her  alarm,  and  feared  that  she  had  been 
understood;  she  was  trembling  for  the  future.  The  two 
women,  one  ashamed  and  furious,  the  other  vicious  but  calm, 
withdrew  into  the  window  bay,  one  leaning  on  the  right  side, 
the  other  on  the  left ;  but  their  looks  were  so  expressive,  that 
each  turned  away,  and  with  a  common  instinct  looked  out 
of  the  window  at  the  sky.  These  two  women,  clever  as  they 
were,  at  that  moment  had  no  more  wit  than  the  commonest. 
Perhaps  it  is  always  so  when  circumstances  overpower  men. 
There  is  always  a  moment  when  even  genius  is  consciouB  of 
its  smallness  in  the  presence  of  a  great  catastrophe. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  133 

As  for  Christophe,  he  felt  like  a  man  falling  into  an  abyss. 
Lewiston,  the  Scotch  captain,  listened  to  the  silence,  looking 
at  the  furrier's  son  and  the  two  Queens  with  a  soldier's 
curiosity.  The  King's  entrance  put  an  end  to  this  painful 
situation. 

The  Cardinal  went  straight  up  to  Queen  Catherine. 

'''I  have  in  my  hand  all  the  threads  of  the  plot  hatched 
by  the  heretics;  they  sent  this  boy  to  me  carrying  this  treaty 
and  these  documents,"  said  Catherine  in  an  undertone. 

While  Catherine  was  explaining  matters  to  the  Cardinal, 
Queen  Mary  was  speaking  a  few  words  in  the  Grand  Master^s 
ear. 

"What  is  this  all  about  ?"  asked  the  young  King,  standing 
alone  amid  this  conflict  of  violent  interests. 

"The  proofs  of  what  I  was  telling  your  Majesty  are  already 
to  hand,"  said  the  Cardinal,  seizing  the  papers. 

The  Due  de  Guise,  unmindful  of  the  fact  that  he  was  in- 
terrupting him,  drew  his  brother  aside  and  said  in  a  whisper : 

"This  then  makes  me  Lieutenant- General  without  any  op- 
position." 

A  keen  glance  was  the  Cardinal's  only  reply,  by  which 
he  conveyed  to  his  brother  that  he  had  already  appreciated 
the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  Catherine's  false  position. 

"Who  sent  you  ?"  asked  the  Duke  of  Christophe, 

"Chaudieu  the  preacher,"  he  replied. 

"Young  man,  you  lie,"  said  the  Duke  roughly.  "It  was  the 
Prince  de  Conde." 

"The  Prince  de  Conde,  monseigneur,"  replied  Christophe, 
with  a  look  of  surprise.  "I  never  saw  him.  I  belong  to 
the  Palais.  I  am  working  under  Monsieur  de  Thou.  I  am 
his  clerk,  and  he  does  not  know  that  I  have  joined  the  re- 
ligion.   I  only  submitted  to  the  preacher's  entreaties." 

"That  will  do,"  said  the  Cardinal. — "Call  Monsieur  de 

Hobertet,"  he  added  to  Lewiston,  "for  this  young  villain  is 

craftier  than  old  politicians.    He  has  taken  us  in,  my  brother 

and  me,  when  we  should  have  given  him  the  Host  without 

confession." 

— lo 


134  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

'TTou  are  no  child,  by  Heaven !"  cried  the  Duke,  "and  you 
shall  be  treated  as  a  man." 

*"rhey  hoped  to  win  over  your  august  mother,"  said  the 
Cardinal,  turning  to  the  King,  and  trying  to  lead  him  aside 
to  bring  him  to  his  way  of  thinking. 

"Alas!"  replied  Catherine,  speaking  to  her  son  with  a 
reproachful  air,  and  stopping  him  just  as  the  Cardinal  was 
taking  him  into  the  oratory  to  subjugate  him  with  dangerous 
eloquence,  "you  here  see  the  effect  of  the  position  I  am  placed 
in.  I  am  supposed  to  rebel  against  my  lack  of  influence  in 
public  affairs — I,  the  mother  of  four  princes  of  the  House  of 
Valois." 

The  young  King  prepared  to  listen.  Mary  Stuart,  seeing 
his  brow  knit,  led  him  off  into  the  window  recess,  where  she 
cajoled  him  with  gentle  speeches  in  a  low  voice;  much  the 
same,  no  doubt,  as  those  she  had  lavished  on  him  when  he 
rose. 

The  two  brothers  meanwhile  read  the  papers  handed  over 
to  them  by  the  Queen-mother.  Finding  in  them  much  in- 
formation of  which  their  spies  and  Monsieur  de  Braguelonne, 
the  governor  of  the  Chatelet,  knew  nothing,  they  were  in- 
clined to  believe  in  Catherine's  good  faith.  Eobertet  came  in 
and  had  private  instructions  with  regard  to  Christophe.  The 
hapless  tool  of  the  leaders  of  the  Eeformation  was  led  away 
by  four  men  of  the  Scotch  Guard,  who  took  him  downstairs 
and  handed  him  over  to  Monsieur  de  Montresor,  the  Provost 
of  the  chateau.  This  terrible  personage  himself  escorted 
Christophe  with  five  or  six  sergeants  to  the  prison  situated 
in  the  vaulted  cellars  of  the  now  ruined  tower,  which  the 
verger  of  the  chateau  of  Blois  shows  the  visitor,  and  says 
that  these  were  the  oubliettes. 

After  such  an  event  the  Council  could  only  be  an  empty 
form:  the  King,  the  young  Queen,  the  Grand  Master,  and 
the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine  went  back  to  the  council-room,' 
taking  with  them  Catherine,  quite  conquered,  who  only  spoke 
to  approve  of  the  measures  demanded  by  the  Guises.  In  spite 
of  some  slight  opposition  on  the  part  of  the   Chancellor 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  135 

Olivier,  the  only  person  to  utter  a  word  suggesting  the  inde- 
pendence needful  to  the  exercise  of  his  functions,  the  Due  de 
Guise  was  appointed  Lieutenant-General  of  the  kingdom. 
Eobertet  carried  the  motions  with  a  promptitude  arguing  such 
devotion  as  might  be  well  called  complicity. 

The  King,  with  his  mother  on  his  arm,  once  more  crossed 
the  guardroom,  and  announced  to  the  Court  that  he  proposed 
to  move  to  Amboise  on  the  following  day.  This  royal  resi^ 
dence  had  been  unused  since  Charles  VIII.  had  very  invol- 
untarily killed  himself  there  by  striking  his  head  against  the 
pediment  of  a  door  that  was  being  carved  for  him,  believing 
that  he  could  pass  under  the  scaffolding  without  bending  his 
head.  Catherine,  to  mask  the  schemes  of  the  Guises,  had 
announced  her  intention  of  finishing  the  chateau  of  Amboise 
on  behalf  of  the  Crown  at  the  same  time  as  her  own  chateau 
of  Chenonceaux.  But  no  one  was  deceived  by  this  pretence, 
and  the  Court  anticipated  strange  events. 

After  spending  about  two  hours  in  accustoming  himself 
to  the  darkness  of  his  dungeon,  Christophe  found  that  it  was 
lined  with  boards,  clumsy  indeed,  but  thick  enough  to  make 
the  square  box  healthy  and  habitable.  The  door,  like  that 
into  a  pig-sty,  had  compelled  him  to  bend  double  to  get  into 
it.  On  one  side  of  this  trap  a  strong  iron  grating  admitted  a 
little  air  and  light  from  the  passage.  This  arrangement,  ex- 
actly like  that  of  the  crypts  at  Venice,  showed  very  plainly 
that  the  architect  of  the  chateau  of  Blois  belonged  to  the 
Venetian  school,  which  gave  so  many  builders  to  Europe  in 
the  Middle  Ages.  By  sounding  the  walls  above  the  woodwork, 
Christophe  discovered  that  the  two  walls  which  divided  this 
cell  from  two  others,  to  the  right  and  left,  were  built  of  brick ; 
and  as  he  knocked,  to  estimate  the  thickness  of  the  wall,  he 
was  not  a  little  surprised  to  hear  some  one  knocking  on  the 
other  side. 

"Who  are  you  ?"  asked  his  neighbor,  speaking  into  the  cor- 
ridor. 

"I  am  Christophe  Lecamus." 


138  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

"And  I,"  said  the  other  voice,  "am  Captain  Chaudieu.  I 
was  caught  this  evening  at  Beaugency;  but,  happily,  there 
is  nothing  against  me." 

"Everything  is  discovered,"  said  Christophe;  "so  you  are 
saved  from  the  worst  of  it." 

"We  have  three  thousand  men  at  this  present  time  in  the 
forests  of  Vendomois,  all  men  determined  enough  to  seize 
the  Queen-mother  and  the  King  on  their  journey.  Happily, 
la  Renaudie  was  cleverer  than  I ;  he  escaped.  You  had  just 
set  out  when  the  Guisards  caught  us." 

"But  I  know  nothing  of  la  Eenaudie." 

"Pooh!  my  brother  told  me  everything,"  replied  the  cap- 
tain. 

On  hearing  this,  Christophe  went  back  to  his  bench  and 
made  no  further  reply  to  anything  the  so-called  captain 
could  say  to  him,  for  he  had  had  enough  experience  of  the 
law  to  know  how  necessary  it  was  to  be  cautious  in  prison. 

In  the  middle  of  the  night  he  saw  the  pale  gleam  of  a 
lantern  in  the  passage,  after  hearing  the  unlocking  of  the 
ponderous  bolts  that  closed  the  iron  door  of  the  cellar.  The 
provost  himself  had  come  to  fetch  Christophe.  This  atten- 
tion to  a  man  who  had  been  left  in  the  dungeon  without  food 
struck  Christophe  as  strange;  but  the  upset  at  Court  had, 
no  doubt,  led  to  his  being  forgotten.  One  of  the  provost's 
sergeants  bound  his  hands  with  a  cord,  which  he  held  till 
they  had  reached  one  of  the  low  rooms  in  Louis  XII.'s  part 
of  the  chateau,  which  evidently  was  the  ante-room  to  the 
apartments  of  some  person  of  importance.  The  sergeant  and 
the  provost  bid  him  be  seated  on  a  bench,  where  the  sergeant 
tied  his  feet  as  he  had  already  tied  his  hands.  At  a  sign  from 
Monsieur  de  Montresor,  the  sergeant  then  left  them. 

"N^ow  listen  to  me,  my  young  friend,"  said  the  provost  to 
.  Christophe,  and  the  lad  observed  that  he  was  in  full  dress  at 
that  hour  of  the  night,  for  his  fingers  fidgeted  with  the  collar 
of  his  Order.  This  circumstance  made  the  furrier's  son 
thoughtful;  he  saw  that  there  was  more  to  come.  At  this 
moment,  certainly,  they  could  not  be  going  either  to  try  him 
or  to  hang  him. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  137 

'^My  young  friend,  you  may  spare  yourself  much  suffering 
by  telling  me  here  and  now  all  you  know  of  the  communica- 
tions between  Queen  Catherine  and  Monsieur  de  Conde. 
Not  only  will  you  not  be  hurt,  but  you  will  be  taken  into 
the  service  of  Monseigneur,  the  Lieutenant-General  of  the 
kingdom,  who  likes  intelligent  people,  and  who  was  favorably 
impressed  by  your  looks.  The  Queen-mother  is  to  be  packed 
off  to  Florence,  and  Monsieur  de  Conde  will  no  doubt  stand 
his  trial.  So,  take  my  word  for  it,  small  men  will  do  well 
to  attach  themselves  to  the  great  men  in  power. — Tell  me 
everything,  and  it  will  be  to  your  advantage." 

"Alas,  monsieur,"  replied  Christophe,  "I  have  nothing  to 
say.  I  have  confessed  all  I  know  to  Messieurs  de  Guise  in 
the  Queen's  room.  Chaudieu  persuaded  me  to  place  those 
papers  in  the  hands  of  the  Queen-mother,  by  making  me  be- 
lieve that  the  peace  of  the  country  was  involved." 

"You  never  saw  the  Prince  de  Conde?" 

"Never,"  said  Christophe. 

Thereupon  Monsieur  de  Montresor  left  Christophe  and 
went  into  an  adjoining  room. 

Christophe  was  not  long  left  to  himself.  The  door  by 
which  he  had  entered  soon  opened  for  several  men  to  pass  in, 
who  did  not  shut  it,  letting  various  far  from  pleasant  sounds 
come  in  from  the  courtyard.  Blocks  of  wood  and  instru- 
ments were  brought  in,  evidently  intended  to  torture  the 
Keformers'  messenger.  Christophe's  curiosity  soon  found 
matter  for  reflection  in  the  preparations  the  newcomers  were 
making  under  his  very  eyes.  Two  coarse  and  poorly-clad 
varlets  obeyed  the  orders  of  a  powerful  and  thick-set  man, 
who,  on  coming  in,  had  a  look  at  Christophe  like  that  of  a 
cannibal  at  his  victim ;  he  had  scrutinized  him  from  head  to 
foot,  taking  stock  of  his  sinews,  of  their  strength  and  power 
of  resistance,  with  the  calculating  eye  of  a  connoisseur.  This 
man  was  the  Blois  executioner.  Backwards  and  forwards 
several  times,  his  men  brought  in  a  mattress,  wooden  wedges, 
planks,  and  other  objects,  of  which  the  use  seemed  neither 
obvious  nor  hopeful  to  the  unhappy  boy  for  whom  the  prepar 


138  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE*  MEDICI 

rations  were  being  made,  and  whose  blood  ran  cold  in  his  veins 
with  apprehension,  which  though  vague  was  appalling.  Two 
other  men  came  in  when  Monsieur  de  Montresor  reappeared, 

"What,  is  nothing  ready  yet?"  said  the  chief  provost,  to 
whom  the  two  newcomers  bowed  respectfully.  "Do  you  know," 
he  went  on  to  the  big  man  and  his  two  satellites,  "that  Mon- 
sieur le  Cardinal  supposes  you  to  be  getting  on  with  your 
work? — Doctor,"  he  added,  turning  to  one  of  the  newcomers, 
*Tiere  is  your  man,"  and  he  pointed  to  Christophe. 

The  doctor  went  up  to  the  prisoner,  untied  his  hands,  and 
sounded  his  back  and  chest.  Science  quite  seriously  repeated 
the  torturer's  investigation.  Meanwhile,  a  servant  in  the 
livery  of  the  House  of  Guise  brought  in  several  chairs,  a  table, 
and  all  the  materials  for  writing. 

"Begin  your  report,"  said  Monsieur  de  l^Iontresor  to  the 
second  person  who  had  come  in,  dressed  in  black,  who  was  a 
clerk. 

Then  he  came  back  to  stand  by  Christophe,  to  whom  he  said 
very  mildly : 

"My  boy,  the  Chancellor,  having  learned  that  you  refuse  to 
give  satisfactory  replies  to  my  questions,  has  decided  that 
you  must  be  put  to  the  torture — ordinary  and  extraordinary." 

"Is  he  in  good  health,  and  can  he  beax  it  ?"  the  clerk  asked 
of  the  doctor, 

"Yes,"  said  the  man  of  medicine,  a  physician  attached  to 
the  House  of  Lorraine. 

"Well,  then,  retire  to  the  adjoining  room ;  we  will  send  for 
you  if  it  is  necessary  to  consult  you." 

The  physician  left  the  room. 

His  first  panic  past,  Christophe  collected  all  his  courage. 
The  hour  of  his  martyrdom  was  come.  He  now  looked  on 
with  cold  curiosity  at  the  arrangements  ma^ae  by  the  execu- 
tioner and  his  varlets.  After  hastily  making  up  a  bed,  they 
proceeded  to  prepare  a  machine  called  the  boot,  consisting  of 
boards,  between  which  each  leg  of  the  -victim  was  placed, 
surrounded  with  pads.  The  machinery  itked  by  bookbinders 
to  press  the  volumes  between  two  boards,  which  they  tighten 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  139 

with  cords,  will  give  a  very  exact  idea  of  the  way  in  which 
each  leg  was  encased.  It  is  easy,  then,  to  imagine  the  ejffect 
of  a  wedge  driven  home  by  a  mallet  between  the  two  cases 
in  which  the  legs  were  confined,  and  which,  being  tightly 
bound  with  rope,  could  not  yield.  The  wedges  were  driven 
in  at  the  knees  and  ankles,  as  if  to  split  a  log  of  wood.  The 
choice  of  these  two  spots  where  there  is  least  flesh,  and  where, 
in  consequence,  the  wedge  found  room  at  the  expense  of  the 
bones,  made  this  form  of  torture  horribly  painful.  In  or-j, 
dinary  torture  four  wedges  were  driven  in — two  at  the  knees 
and  two  at  the  ankles;  in  extraordinary  torture  as  many  as 
eight  were  employed,  if  the  physician  pronounced  that  the 
victim's  powers  of  endurance  were  not  exhausted. 

At  this  period  the  boots  were  also  applied  to  the  hands ;  but 
as  time  pressed,  the  Cardinal,  the  Lieutenant-General  of  the 
kingdom,  and  the  Chancellor  spared  Christophe  this. 

The  preamble  to  the  examination  was  written;  the  provost 
himself  had  dictated  a  few  sentences,  walking  about  the  room 
with  a  meditative  air,  and  requiring  Christophe  to  tell  him 
his  name — Christian  name — age,  and  profession;  then  he 
asked  him  from  whom  he  had  received  the  papers  he  had 
delivered  to  the  Queen. 

"From  Chaudieu  the  minister,"  said  he. 

"Where  did  he  give  them  to  you?'* 

"At  my  own  home  in  Paris." 

^'When  he  handed  them  to  you,  he  must  have  told  you 
whether  the  Queen-mother  would  receive  you  well." 

"He  told  me  nothing  of  the  kind,"  replied  Christophe. 
"He  only  desired  me  to  give  them  secretly  to  Queen  Cath- 
erine." 

"Then  have  you  often  seen  Chaudieu,  that  he  knew  that 
you  were  coming  here  ?" 

"It  was  not  from  me  that  he  heard  that  I  was  to  carry  the 
furs  to  the  two  Queens,  and  at  the  same  time  to  ask  in  my 
father's  behalf  for  the  money  owed  him  by  the  Queen-mother ; 
nor  had  I  time  to  ask  him  who  had  told  him." 

"But  those  papers,  given  to  you  without  any  wrapper  or 


140  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

seal,  contain  a  treaty  between  the  rebels  and  Queen  Catherine. 
You  must  have  known  that  they  exposed  you  to  the  risk  of 
suffering  the  punishment  dealt  out  to  those  who  are  impli- 
cated in  a  rebellion." 

"Yes." 

"The  persons  who  induced  you  to  commit  an  act  of  high 
treason  must  have  promised  you  some  reward  and  the  Queen- 
mother's  patronage." 

"I  did  it  out  of  attachment  to  Chaudieu,  the  only  person 
I  saw." 

"Then  you  persist  in  declaring  that  you  did  not  see  the 
Prince  de  Conde?" 

'^es." 

"Did.  not  the  Prince  de  Conde  tell  you  that  the  Queen- 
mother  was  inclined  to  enter  into  his  views  in  antagonism 
to  the  Guises?" 

"I  did  not  see  him," 

"Take  care.  One  of  your  accomplices,  la  Eenaudie,  is 
arrested.  Strong  as  he  is,  he  could  not  resist  the  torture 
that  awaits  you,  and  at  last  confessed  that  he,  as  well  as  the 
Prince,  had  had  speech  with  you.  If  you  wish  to  escape  the 
anguish  of  torture,  I  beg  you  to  tell  the  simple  truth.  Then 
perhaps  you  may  win  your  pardon." 

Christophe  replied  that  he  could  not  tell  anything  of  which 
he  had  no  knowledge,  nor  betray  accomplices,  when  he  had 
none.  On  hearing  this,  the  provost  nodded  to  the  execu- 
tioner, and  went  back  into  the  adjoining  room. 

On  seeing  this,  Christophe  knit  his  brows,  wrinkling  his 
forehead  with  a  nervous  spasm,  and  preparing  to  endure.  He 
clenched  his  fists  with  such  a  rigid  clutch  that  the  nails  ran 
into  the  flesh  without  his  feeling  it.  The  three  men  took  him 
up,  carried  him  to  the  camp  bed,  and  laid  him  there,  his  legs 
hanging  down.  While  the  executioner  tied  him  fast  with 
stout  ropes,  his  two  men  each  fitted  a  leg  into  a  boot;  the 
cords  were  tightened  by  means  of  a  wrench  without  giving 
the  victim  any  great  pain.  When  each  leg  was  thus  held  in 
a  vise,  the  executioner  took  up  his  mallet  and  his  wedges,  and 
looked  alternately  at  the  sufferer  and  the  clerk. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  141 

"Do  you  persist  in  your  denial  ?"  said  the  clerk. 

"I  have  told  the  truth/'  replied  Christophe. 

"Then  go  on,"  said  the  clerk,  shutting  his  eyes. 

The  cords  were  tightened  to  the  utmost,  and  this  moment, 
perhaps,  was  the  most  agonizing  of  all  the  torture;  the  flesh 
was  so  suddenly  compressed  that  the  blood  was  violently 
thrown  back  into  the  trunk.  The  poor  boy  could  not  help 
screaming  terribly;  he  seemed  about  to  faint.  The  doctor 
was  called  back.  He  felt  Christophe's  pulse,  and  desired  the 
executioner  to  wait  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour  before  driving 
in  the  wedges,  to  give  time  for  the  blood  to  recover  its  circu- 
lation and  sensation  to  return. 

The  clerk  charitably  told  Christophe  that  if  he  could  not 
better  endure  even  the  beginnings  of  the  suffering  he  could 
not  escape,  he  would  do  better  to  reveal  all  he  knew;  but 
Christophe's  only  reply  was : 

"The  King's  tailor !  the  King's  tailor !" 

'HiVhat  do  you  mean  by  saying  that  ?"  asked  the  clerk. 

"Foreseeing  the  torments  I  shall  go  through,"  said  Chris- 
tophe, slowly,  to  gain  time  and  to  rest,  "I  am  summoning  all 
my  strength,  and  trying  to  reinforce  it  by  remembering  the 
martyrdom  endured  for  the  sacred  cause  of  the  Eeformation 
by  the  late  King's  tailor,  who  was  tortured  in  the  presence 
of  the  King  and  of  Madame  de  Valentinois;  I  will  try  to  be 
worthy  of  him !" 

While  the  physician  was  advising  the  hapless  man  not  to 
drive  his  torturers  to  extremities,  the  Cardinal  and  the  Duke, 
impatient  to  know  the  results  of  this  examination,  came  in 
and  desired  Christophe  to  reveal  the  truth  at  once.  The 
furrier's  son  repeated  the  only  confession  he  would  allow  him- 
self to  make,  implicating  nobody  but  Chaudieu. 

The  Princes  nodded.  On  this,  the  executioner  and  his 
foreman  seized  their  mallets,  each  took  a  wedge  and  drove 
it  home  between  the  boots,  one  standing  on  the  right,  and  the 
other  on  the  left.  The  executioner  stood  at  the  knees,  the 
assistant  at  the  ankles,  opposite.  The  eyes  of  the  witnesses 
of  this  hideous  act  were  fixed  on  Christophe's,  who,  excited 


142  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

no  doubt  by  the  presence  of  these  grand  personages,  flashed 
such  a  look  at  them  that  his  eyes  sparkled  like  flame. 

At  the  two  next  wedges  a  horrible  groan  escaped  him. 
Then  when  he  saw  the  men  take  up  the  wedges  for  the 
severer  torture,  he  remained  silent ;  but  his  gaze  assumed  such 
dreadful  fixity,  and  flashed  at  the  two  Princes  such  a  piercing 
magnetic  fluid,  that  the  Duke  and  the  Cardinal  were  both 
obliged  to  look  down.  Philippe  le  Bel  had  experienced  the] 
same  defeat  when  he  presided  at  the  torture  by  hammer,  in-  ^ 
flicted  in  his  presence  on  the  Templars.  This  consisted  in 
hitting  the  victim  on  the  chest  with  one  arm  of  the  balanced 
hammer  used  to  coin  money,  which  was  covered  with  a 
leather  pad.  There  was  one  knight  whose  eyes  were  so  flxed 
on  the  King  that  he  was  fascinated,  and  could  not  take  his 
gaze  off  the  sufferer.  At  the  third  blow  the  King  rose  and 
went  away,  after  hearing  himself  called  upon  to  appear  before 
the  judgment  of  God  within  a  year — as  he  did. 

At  the  fifth  wedge,  the  first  of  the  greater  torture,  Chris- 
tophe  said  to  the  Cardinal : 

"Cut  my  misery  short,  monseigneur;  it  is  useless." 

The  Cardinal  and  the  Duke  withdrew,  and  Christophe 
could  hear  from  the  next  room  these  words,  spoken  by 
Queen  Catherine: 

"Go  on,  go  on ;  after  all,  he  is  only  a  heretic !" 

She  thought  it  prudent  to  appear  more  severe  to  her  ac- 
complice than  his  executioners  were. 

The  sixth  and  seventh  wedges  were  driven  in,  and  Chris- 
tophe complained  no  more,  his  face  shone  with  a  strange 
radiance,  due,  no  doubt,  to  the  immense  strength  he  derived 
from  fanatical  excitement.  In  what  else  but  in  feeling  can 
we  hope  to  find  the  fulcrum  enabling  a  man  to  endure  such 
anguish?  At  last,  when  the  executioner  was  about  to  insert 
the  eighth  wedge,  Christophe  smiled.  This  dreadful  torment 
had  lasted  one  hour. 

The  clerk  went  to  fetch  the  leech,  to  know  whether  the 
eighth  wedge  could  be  driven  in  without  endangering  the 
sufferer's  life.  The  Duke  meanwhile  came  in  again  to  see 
Christophe. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  143 

"By  our  Lady !  you  are  a  fine  fellow,"  said  he,  leaning  down 
to  speak  in  Ms  ear.  "I  like  a  brave  man.  Enter  my  service, 
you  shall  be  happy  and  rich,  my  favors  will  heal  your  bruised 
limbs;  I  will  ask  you  to  do  nothing  cowardly,  like  rejoining 
your  own  party  to  betray  their  plans ;  there  are  always  plenty 
of  traitors,  and  the  proof  is  to  be  found  in  the  prisons  of  Blois. 
Only  tell  me  on  what  terms  are  the  Queen-mother  and  the 
Prince  de  Conde."  ? 

"I  know  nothing  about  it,  monseigneur,"  cried  Lecamus. 

The  doctor  came  in,  examined  the  victim,  and  pronounced 
that  he  could  bear  the  eighth  wedge. 

"Drive  it  in,"  said  the  Cardinal.  "After  all,  as  the  Queen 
says,  he  is  only  a  heretic,"  he  added,  with  a  hideous  smile 
at  Christophe. 

Catherine  herself  slowly  came  in  from  the  adjoining  room, 
stood  in  front  of  Christophe,  and  gazed  at  him  coldly.  She 
was  the  object  of  attentive  scrutiny  to  the  two  brothers,  who 
looked  alternately  at  the  Queen-mother  and  her  accomplice. 
The  whole  future  life  of  this  ambitious  woman  depended  on 
this  solemn  scrutiny;  she  felt  the  greatest  admiration  for 
Christophe's  courage,  and  she  looked  at  him  sternly;  she 
hated  the  Guises,  and  she  smiled  upon  them. 

"Come,"  said  she,  "young  man,  confess  that  you  saw  the 
Prince  de  Conde;  you  will  be  well  rewarded." 

"Oh,  madame,  what  a  part  you  are  playing !"  cried  Chris- 
tophe, in  pity  for  her. 

The  Queen  started. 

"He  is  insulting  me !  Is  he  not  to  be  hanged  ?"  said  she 
to  the  two  brothers,  who  stood  lost  in  thought. 

"What  a  woman !"  cried  the  Grand  Master,  who  was  con- 
sulting his  brother  in  the  window  recess. 

"I  will  stay  in  France  and  be  revenged,"  thought  the 
Queen.  "Proceed,  he  must  confess  or  let  him  die !"  she  ex- 
claimed, addressing  Monsieur  de  Montresor. 

The  provost  turned  away,  the  executioners  were  busy,  Cath- 
erine had  an  opportunity  of  giving  the  martyr  a  look,  which 
no  one  else  saw,  and  which  fell  like  dew  on  Christophe.    The 


144  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

great  Queen's  eyes  seemed  to  glisten  with  moisture ;  thej-  were, 
in  fact,  full  of  tears,  two  tears  at  once  repressed  and  dry. 
The  wedge  was  driven  home,  one  of  the  boards  between  which 
it  was  inserted  split.  Christophe  uttered  a  piercing  cry; 
then  his  face  became  radiant ;  he  tho\ight  he  was  dying. 

"Let  him  die,"  said  the  Cardinal,  echoing  Queen  Cath- 
erine's words  with  a  sort  of  irony.  "No,  no,"  he  added  to 
the  provost,  "do  not  let  us  lose  this  clue." 

The  Duke  and  the  Cardinal  held  a  consultation  in  a  low 
voice. 

"What  is  to  be  done  with  him  ?"  asked  the  executioner. 

"Send  him  to  prison  at  Orleans,"  said  the  Duke. — "And, 
above  all,"  he  said  to  Monsieur  de  Montresor,  "do  not  hang 
him  without  orders  from  me." 

The  excessive  sensitiveness  of  every  internal  organ,  strung 
to  the  highest  pitch  by  the  endurance  which  worked  upon 
every  nerve  in  his  frame,  no  less  affected  every  sense  in  Chris- 
tophe. He  alone  heard  these  words  spoken  by  the  Due  de 
Guise  in  the  Cardinal's  ear : 

"I  have  not  given  up  all  hope  of  hearing  the  truth  from  this 
little  man." 

As  soon  as  the  two  Princes  had  left  the  room,  the  execu- 
tioners unpacked  the  victim's  legs,  with  no  attempt  at  gentle 
handling. 

"Did  you  ever  see  a  criminal  with  such  fortitude?"  said 
the  head  man  to  his  assistants.  "The  rogue  has  lived  through 
the  infliction  of  the  eighth  wedge ;  he  ought  to  have  died.  I 
am  the  loser  of  the  price  of  his  body." 

"Untie  me  without  hurting  me,  my  good  friends,"  said 
poor  Christophe.    "Some  day  I  will  reward  you." 

"Come,  show  some  humanity,"  said  the  doctor.  "Mon- 
seigneur  the  Duke  esteems  the  young  man,  and  commended 
■him  to  my  care,"  cried  the  leech. 

"I  am  off  to  Amboise  with  my  men,"  said  the  executioner 
roughly.  "Take  care  of  him  yourself.  And  here  is  the 
jailer." 

The  executioner  went  off,  leaving  Christophe  in  the  hands 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  145 

of  the  smooth-spoken  doctor,  who,  with  the  help  of  Chris- 
tophe's  warder,  lifted  him  on  to  a  bed,  gave  him  some  broth, 
which  he  made  him  swallow,  sat  down  by  his  side,  felt  his 
pulse,  and  tried  to  comfort  him. 

'^ou  are  not  dying,"  he  said,  "and  you  must  feel  a  com- 
fort to  your  mind  when  you  reflect  that  you  have  done  your 
duty;  The  Queen  charged  me  to  take  good  care  of  you,"  he 
added,  in  a  low  voice. 

"The  Queen  is  very  good,"  said  Christophe,  in  whom  acute 
anguish  had  developed  wonderful  lucidity  of  mind,  and  who, 
after  enduring  so  much,  was  determined  not  to  spoil  the 
results  of  his  devotion.  "But  she  might  have  saved  me  so 
much  suffering  by  not  delivering  me  to  my  tormentors,  and 
by  telling  them  herself  the  secrets,  of  which  I  know  nothing." 

On  hearing  this  reply,  the  doctor  put  on  his  cap  and  cloak 
and  left  Christophe  to  his  fate,  thinking  it  vain  to  hope  to 
gain  anything  from  a  man  of  that  temper.  The  jailer  had 
the  poor  boy  carried  on  a  litter  by  four  men  to  the  town 
prison,  where  Christophe  fell  asleep,  in  that  deep  slumber 
which,  it  is  said,  comes  upon  almost  every  mother  after  the 
dreadful  pains  of  childbirth. 

The  two  Princes  of  Lorraine,  when  they  transferred  the 
Court  to  Amboise,  had  no  hope  of  finding  there  the  leader 
of  the  Eeformed  party,  the  Prince  de  Conde,  whom  they  had 
ordered  to  appear  in  the  King's  name  to  take  him  in  a 
snare.  As  a  vassal  of  the  Crown,  and  as  a  Prince  of  the 
Blood,  Conde  was  bound  to  obey  the  behest  of  the  King.  Not 
to  come  to  Amboise  would  be  a  felony;  but,  by  coming,  he 
would  place  himself  in  the  power  of  the  Crown.  Now,  at  this 
moment,  the  Crown,  the  Council,  the  Court,  and  every  kind 
of  power,  were  in  the  hands  of  the  Due  de  Guise  and  the 
Cardinal  de  Lorraine. 

In  this  difficult  dilemma,  the  Prince  de  Conde  showed  the 
spirit  of  decisiveness  and  astuteness,  which  made  him  a 
worthy  representative  of  Jeanne  d'Albret  and  the  brave  Gen- 
eral of  the  Reformers'  forces-    He  traveled  at  the  heels  of  the 


146  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DK'  MEDICI 

last  conspirators  to  Vendome  to  support  them  in  case  of 
success.  But  when  this  first  rush  to  arms  ended  in  the  brief 
skirmish  in  which  the  flower  of  the  nobility  whom  Calvin 
had  misled  all  perished,  the  Prince,  and  a  following  of  fifty 
gentlemen,  arrived  at  the  chateau  d'Amboise  the  very  day 
after  this  affair,  which  the  Guises,  with  crafty  policy,  spoke 
.of  as  the  riots  at  Amboise.  On  hearing  of  the  Prince's  ad- 
vance, the  Duke  sent  out  the  Marechal  de  Saint-Andre  to 
'receive  him  with  an  escort  of  a  hundred  men-at-arms.  When 
the  Bearnais  came  to  the  gate  of  the  chateau,  the  marshal  in 
command  refused  to  admit  the  Prince's  suite. 

'TTou  must  come  in  alone,  sir,"  said  the  Chancellor  Olivier, 
Cardinal  de  Toumon,  and  Birague,  who  awaited  him  outside 
the  portcullis. 

"And  why?" 

"You  are  suspected  of  felony,"  replied  the  Chancellor. 

The  Prince,  who  saw  that  his  party  was  being  cut  off  by 
the  Due  de  Nemours,  quietly  replied : 

"If  that  is  the  case,  I  will  go  in  to  my  cousin  alone  and 
prove  my  innocence." 

He  dismounted  and  conversed  with  perfect  freedom  with 
Birague,  Tournon,  the  Chancellor  Olivier,  and  the  Due  de 
Nemours,  from  whom  he  asked  details  of  the  riot. 

"Monseigneur,"  said  the  Due  de  Nemours,  "the  rebels  had 
sympathizers  inside  Amboise.  Captain  Lanoue  had  got  in 
some  men-at-arms,  who  opened  the  gate  to  them  through 
which  they  got  into  the  town,  and  of  which  they  had  the 
command " 

"That  is  to  say,  you  got  them  into  a  sack,"  replied  the 
Prince,  looking  at  Birague. 

"If  they  had  been  supported  by  the  attack  that  was  to 
have  been  made  on  the  Porte  des  Bons-Iiommes  by  Captain 
Chaudieu,  the  preacher's  brother,  they  would  have  succeeded," 
said  the  Due  de  Nemours,  "but,  from  the  position  I  had  taken 
up,  in  obedience  to  the  Due  de  Guise,  Captain  Chaudieu  was 
obliged  to  make  a  detour  to  avoid  fighting  me.,  Instead  of 
arriving  at  night  like  the  rest,  that  rebel  did  not  come  up  till 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  147 

daybreak,  just  as  the  King's  troops  had  crushed  those  who 
had  got  into  the  town." 

"And  you  had  a  reserve  to  recapture  the  gate  that  had 
been  given  up  to  them  ?" 

"Monsieur  le  Marechal  de  Saint-Andre  was  on  the  spot 
with  five  hundred  men." 

The  Prince  warmly  praised  these  military  manoeuvres. 

"To  have  acted  thus,"  said  he  in  conclusion,  "the  Lieu- 
tenant-General  must  have  known  the  Eeformers'  secrets. 
They  have  evidently  been  betrayed." 

The  Prince  was  treated  with  greater  strictness  at  each 
step.  After  being  parted  from  his  followers  on  entering 
the  chateau,  the  Cardinal  and  the  Chancellor  stood  in  his 
way  when  he  turned  to  the  stairs  leading  to  the  King's  apart- 
ments. 

"We  are  instructed  by  the  King,  sir,  to  conduct  you  to 
your  own  rooms." 

"Am  I  then  a  prisoner?" 

"If  that  were  the  King's  purpose,  you  would  not  be  at- 
tended by  a  Prince  of  the  Church  and  by  me,"  replied  the 
Chancellor. 

The  two  functionaries  led  the  Prince  to  an  apartment 
where  a  guard — of  honor  so  called — was  allotted  to  him, 
ai^where  he  remained  for  several  hours  without  seeing  any 
one.  From  his  window  he  looked  out  on  the  Loire,  the  rich 
country  which  makes  such  a  beautiful  valley  between  Am- 
boise  and  Tours,  and  he  was  meditating  on  his  situation, 
wondering  what  the  Guises  might  dare  to  do  to  his  person, 
when  he  heard  the  door  of  his  room  open,  and  saw  the  King's 
fool  come  in,  Chicot,  who  had  once  been  in  his  service. 

"I  heard  you  were  in  disgrace,"  said  the  Prince. 

"You  cannot  think  how  sober  the  Court  has  become  since 
the  death  of  Henri  II." 

"And  yet  the  King  loves  to  laugh,  surely." 

"Which  King?    Francis  II.  or  Francis  of  Lorraine?" 

"Are  you  so  fearless  of  the  Duke  that  you  speak  so?" 

"He  will  not  punish  me  for  that,  sir,"  replied  Chicot, 
smiling. 


148  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DEI   MEDICI 

"And  to  what  do  I  owe  the  honor  of  this  visit  ?" 

"Was  it  not  due  to  you  after  your  coming  here?  I  hare 
brought  you  my  cap  and  bauble." 

"I  cannot  get  out  then?" 

"Try !" 

"And  if  I  do  get  out?" 

"I  will  confess  that  you  have  won  the  game  by  playing 
against  the  rules." 

"Chicot,  you  frighten  me. — Have  you  been  sent  by  some 
one  who  is  interested  in  my  fate?" 

Chicot  nodded  "Yes."  He  went  nearer  to  the  Prince,  and 
conveyed  to  him  that  they  were  watched  and  overheard. 

''What  have  you  to  say  to  me?"  asked  Monsieur  de  Conde. 

"That  nothing  but  daring  can  get  you  out  of  the  scrape," 
said  the  fool,  whispering  the  words  into  his  ear.  "And  this 
is  from  the  Queen-mother." 

"Tell  those  who  have  sent  you,"  replied  the  Prince,  "that 
I  should  never  have  come  to  this  chateau  if  I  had  anything  to 
blame  myself  for,  or  to  fear." 

"I  fly  to  carry  your  bold  reply,"  said  the  fool. 

Two  hours  later,  at  one  in  the  afternoon,  before  the  King's 
dinner,  the  Chancellor  and  Cardinal  de  Toumon  came  to 
fetch  the  Prince  to  conduct  him  to  Francis  II.  in  the  great 
hall  where  the  Council  had  sat.  There,  before  all  the  Court, 
the  Prince  de  Cond6  affected  surprise  at  the  cool  reception 
the  King  had  given  him,  and  he  asked  the  reason. 

"You  are  accused,  cousin,"  said  the  Queen-mother  sternly, 
"of  having  meddled  with  the  plots  of  the  Eeformers,  and 
you  must  prove  yourself  a  faithful  subject  and  a  good 
Catholic  if  you  wish  to  avert  the  King's  anger  from  your 
House." 

On  hearing  this  speech,  spoken  by  Catherine  in  the  midst 
of  hushed  silence,  as  she  stood  with  her  hand  in  the  King's 
arm  and  with  the  Due  d' Orleans  on  her  left  hand,  the  Prince 
de  Conde  drew  back  three  steps,  and  with  an  impulse  of  dig- 
nified pride  laid  his  band  on  his  sword,  looking  at  the  person* 
present. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEtUCI  149 

'*Those  who  say  so,  madame,  lie  in  their  throat!"  he  ex- 
claimed in  angry  tones. 

He  flung  his  glove  at  the  King's  feet,  saying: 

"Let  the  man  who  will  maintain  his  calumny  stand  forth !" 

A  shiver  ran  through  the  whole  Court  when  the  Due  de 
Guise  was  seen  to  quit  his  place;  but  instead  of  picking  up 
the  glove  as  they  expected,  he  went  up  to  the  intrepid  hunch- 
back. 

"If  you  need  a  second.  Prince,  I  beg  of  you  to  accept  my 
services,"  said  he.  "I  will  answer  for  you,  and  will  show 
the  Eeformers  how  greatly  they  deceive  themselves  if  they 
hope  to  have  you  for  their  leader." 

The  Prince  de  Conde  could  not  help  offering  his  hand  to 
the  Lieutenant-General  of  the  kingdom.  Chicot  picked  up 
the  glove  and  restored  it  to  Monsieur  de  Conde. 

"Cousin,"  said  the  boy-King,  "you  should  never  draw  your 
sword  but  in  defence  of  your  country. — Come  to  dinner." 

The  Cardinal  de  Lorraine,  puzzled  by  his  brother's  action, 
led  him  off  to  their  rooms.  The  Prince  de  Conde,  having 
weathered  the  worst  danger,  gave  his  hand  to  Queen  Mary 
Stuart  to  lead  her  to  the  dining-room;  but,  while  making 
flattering  speeches  to  the  young  Queen,  he  was  trying  to 
discern  what  snare  was  at  this  moment  being  laid  for  him 
by  the  Balafre's  policy.  In  vain  he  racked  his  brain,  he 
could  not  divine  the  Guises'  scheme;  but  Queen  Mary  be- 
trayed it. 

"It  would  have  been  a  pity,"  said  she,  laughing,  "to  see 
so  clever  a  head  fall;  you  must  allow  that  my  uncle  is  mag- 
nanimous." 

"Yes,  madame,  for  my  head  flts  no  shoulders  but  my  own, 
although  one  is  larger  than  the  other. — But  is  it  magnanimity 
in  your  uncle?  Has  he  not  rather  gained  credit  at  a  cheap 
rate?  Do  you  think  it  such  an  easy  matter  to  have  the  law 
of  a  Prince  of  the  Blood?" 

**We  have  not  done  yet,"  replied  she.  "We  shall  see  how 
you  behave  at  the  execution  of  the  gentlemen,  your  friends, 
over  which  the  Council  have  determined  to  make  the  greatest 
display." 


150  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

"I  shall  do  as  the  King  does,"  said  Cond6. 

"The  King,  the  Queen-mother,  and  I  shall  all  be  present, 
with  all  the  Court  and  the  Ambassadors " 

"Quite  a  high  day?"  said  the  Prince  ironically. 

"Better  than  that,"  said  the  young  Queen,  "an  auto- 
da-fe,  a  function  of  high  political  purport.  The  gentlemen 
of  France  must  be  subjugated  by  the  Crown ;  they  must  be 
cured  of  tlieir  taste  for  faction  and  manoeuvring " 

"You  will  not  cure  them  of  their  warlike  temper  by  show- 
ing them  their  danger,  madame,  and  at  this  game  you  risk  the 
Crown  itself,"  replied  the  Prince. 

At  the  end  of  this  dinner,  which  was  gloomy  enough.  Queen 
Mary  was  so  unfortunately  daring  as  to  turn  the  conversation 
publicly  on  the  trial  which  the  nobles,  taken  under  arms, 
were  at  that  moment  undergoing,  and  to  speak  of  the  neces- 
sity for  giving  the  utmost  solemnity  to  their  execution. 

"But,  madame,"  said  Francis  II.,  "is  it  not  enough  for  the 
King  of  France  to  know  that  the  blood  of  so  many  brave 
gentlemen  must  be  shed?    Must  it  be  a  cause  of  triumph?" 

"No,  sir,  but  an  example,"  replied  Catherine. 

"Your  grandfather  and  your  father  were  in  the  habit  of 
seeing  heretics  burned,"  said  Mary  Stuart. 

"The  kings  who  reigned  before  me  went  their  way,"  said 
Francis,  "and  I  mean  to  go  mine." 

"Philip  II.,"  Catherine  went  on,  "who  is  a  great  king  lately, 
when  he  was  in  the  Netherlands,  had  an  auto-da-fe  postponed 
till  he  should  have  returned  to  Valladolid." 

*^hat  do  you  think  about  it,  cousin?"  said  the  King  to 
the  Prince  de  Conde. 

"Sir,  you  cannot  avoid  going;  the  Papal  Nuncio  and  the 
Ambassadors  must  be  present.  For  my  part,  I  am  delighted 
to  go  if  the  ladies  are  to  be  of  the  party." 

The  Prince,  at  a  glance  from  Catherine  de'  Medici,  had 
boldly  taken  his  line. 

While  the  Prince  de  Conde  was  being  admitted  to  the 
chateau  of  Amboise,  the  furrier  to  the  two  Queens  was  also 
arriving  from  Paris,  brought  thither  by  the  uneasiness  pro- 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDIOI  151 

duced  by  the  reports  of  the  Eebellion,  not  only  in  himself  and 
his  family,  but  also  in  the  Lalliers. 

At  the  gate  of  the  chateau,  when  the  old  man  craved  ad- 
mission, the  captain  of  the  Guard,  at  the  words  "Queen's 
furrier,"  answered  at  once : 

"My  good  man,  if  you  want  to  be  hanged,  you  have  only 
to  set  foot  in  the  courtyard." 

On  hearing  this,  the  unhappy  father  sat  down  on  a  rail 
a.  little  way  off,  to  wait  till  some  attendant  on  either  of  the 
Queens,  or  some  woman  of  the  Court,  should  pass  him,  to 
ask  for  some  news  of  his  son;  but  he  remained  there  the 
whole  day  without  seeing  anybody  he  knew,  and  was  at  last 
obliged  to  go  down  into  the  town,  where  he  found  a  lodging, 
not  without  difficulty,  in  an  inn  on  the  Square  where  the 
executions  were  to  take  place.  He  was  obliged  to  pay  a  livre 
a  day  to  secure  a  room  looking  out  on  the  Square. 

On  the  following  day,  he  was  brave  enough  to  look  on 
from  his  window  at  the  rebels  who  had  been  condemned  to  the 
wheel,  or  to  be  hanged,  as  men  of  minor  importance;  and 
the  Syndic  of  the  Furriers'  Guild  was  glad  enough  not  to 
find  his  son  among  the  sufferers. 

When  it  was  all  over,  he  went  to  place  himself  in  the 
clerk's  way.  Having  mentioned  his  name,  and  pressed  a 
purse  full  of  crown-pieces  into  the  man's  hand,  he  begged  him 
to  see  whether,  in  the  three  former  days  of  execution,  the 
name  of  Christophe  Lecamus  had  occurred.  The  registrar, 
touched  by  the  despairing  old  father's  manners  and  tone  of 
voice,  conducted  him  to  his  own  house.  After  carefully  com- 
paring notes,  he  could  assure  the  old  man  that  the  said  Chris- 
tophe was  not  among  those  who  had  hitherto  been  executed, 
nor  was  he  named  among  those  who  were  to  die  within  the 
next  few  days. 

"My  dear  master,"  said  the  clerk  to  the  furrier,  "the 
Parlement  is  now  engaged  in  trying  the  lords  and  gentlemen 
concerned  in  the  business,  and  the  principal  leaders.  So, 
possibly,  your  son  is  imprisoned  in  the  chateau,  and  will  be 
one  in  the  magnificent  execution  for  which  my  lords  the  Due 


162  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

de  Guise  and  the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine  are  making  great 
preparations.  Twenty-seven  barons  are  to  be  beheaded,  with 
eleven  counts  and  seven  marquises,  fifty  gentlemen  in  all, 
and  leaders  of  the  Eeformers.  As  the  administration  of  jus- 
tice in  Touraine  has  no  connection  with  that  of  the  Paris 
Parlement,  if  you  positively  must  have  some  news  of  your 
son,  go  to  my  Lord  the  Chancellor  Olivier,  who,  by  the  orders 
of  the  Lieutenant-General  of  the  kingdom,  has  the  manage- 
ment of  the  proceedings." 

Three  times  did  the  poor  old  man  go  to  the  Chancellor's 
house  and  stand  in  a  file  of  people  in  the  courtyard,  in  com- 
mon with  an  immense  number  of  people  who  had  come  to 
pray  for  their  relations'  lives;  but  as  titled  folks  were  ad- 
mitted before  the  middle  class,  he  was  obliged  to  give  up  all 
hope  of  speaking  with  the  Chancellor,  though  he  saw  him 
several  times  coming  out  of  his  house  to  go  either  to  the 
chateau  or  to  the  Commission  appointed  by  the  Parlement, 
along  a  way  cleared  for  him  by  soldiers,  between  two  hedges 
of  petitioners  who  were  thrust  aside. 

It  was  a  dreadful  scene  of  misery,  for  among  this  crowd 
were  wives,  daughters,  and  mothers,  whole  families  in  tears. 
Old  Lecamus  gave  a  great  deal  of  gold  to  the  servants  at  the 
chateau,  enjoining  on  them  that  they  should  deliver  certain 
letters  he  wrote  to  la  Dayelle,  Queen  Mary's  waiting- woman, 
or  to  the  Queen-mother's  woman;  but  the  lackeys  took  the 
good  man's  money,  and  then,  by  the  Cardinal's  orders,  handed 
all  letters  to  the  Provost  of  the  Law  Court.  As  a  consequence 
of  their  unprecedented  cruelty,  the  Princes  of  Lorraine  had 
cause  to  fear  revenge ;  and  they  never  took  greater  precautions 
than  during  the  stay  of  the  Count  at  Amboise,  so  that  neither 
the  most  effectual  bribery,  that  of  gold,  nor  the  most  diligent 
inquiries  brought  the  furrier  any  light  as  to  his  son's  fate. 
He  wandered  about  the  little  town  in  a  melancholy  way, 
watching  the  tremendous  preparations  that  the  Cardinal  was 
making  for  the  shocking  spectacle  at  which  the  Prince  de 
Cond6  was  to  be  present. 

Public  curiosity  was  being  stimulated,  by  every  means  in 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  153 

use  at  the  time,  from  Paris  to  Nantes.  The  execution  had 
been  announced  from  the  pulpit  by  every  preacher,  in  a 
breath  with  the  King's  victory  over  the  heretics. 

Three  elegant  stands,  the  centre  one  apparently  to  be  the 
finest  of  the  three,  were  being  erected  against  the  curtain- 
wall  of  the  chateau,  at  the  foot  of  which  the  execution  was 
to  take  place.  All  round  the  open  space  raised  wooden  seats 
were  being  put  up,  after  the  fashion  of  an  amphitheatre,  to 
accommodate  the  enormous  crowd  attracted  by  the  notoriety 
of  this  auto-da-fe.  About  ten  thousand  persons  were  camp- 
ing out  in  the  fields  on  the  day  before  this  hideous  spectacle. 
The  roofs  were  crowded  with  spectators,  and  windows  were 
let  for  as  much  as  ten  livres,  an  enormous  sum  at  that  time. 

The  unhappy  father  had,  as  may  be  supposed,  secured  one 
of  the  best  places  for  commanding  a  view  of  the  Square 
where  so  many  men  of  family  were  to  perish,  on  a  huge  scaf- 
fold erected  in  the  middle,  and  covered  with  black  cloth.  On 
the  morning  of  the  fatal  day,  the  headsman's  block,  on 
which  the  victim  laid  his  head,  kneeling  in  front  of  it,  was 
placed  on  the  scaffold,  and  an  armchair,  hung  with  black, 
for  the  Eecorder  of  the  Court,  whose  duty  it  was  to  call  the 
condemned  by  name  and  read  their  sentence.  The  enclosure 
was  guarded  from  early  morning  by  the  Scotch  soldiers  and 
the  men-at-arms  of  the  King's  household,  to  keep  the  crowd 
out  till  the  hour  of  the  executions. 

After  a  solemn  mass  in  the  chapel  of  the  chateau  and  in, 
every  church  in  the  town,  the  gentlemen  were  led  forth,  the 
last  survivors  of  aU.  the  conspirators.  These  men,  some  of 
whom  had  been  through  the  torture  chamber,  were  collected 
round  the  foot  of  the  scaffold,  and  exhorted  by  monks,  who 
strove  to  persuade  them  to  renounce  the  doctrines  of  Calvin. 
But  not  one  would  listen  to  these  preachers,  turned  on  to 
them  by  the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine,  among  whom,  no  doubt, 
these  gentlemen  feared  that  there  might  be  some  spies  on 
behalf  of  the  Guises. 

To  escape  being  persecuted  with  these  exhortations,  they 
began  to  sing  a  psalm  turned  into  French  verse  by  Clement 


164  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

Marot.  Calvin,  as  is  well  known,  had  decreed  that  God 
should  be  worshiped  in  the  mother-tongue  of  every  country, 
from  motives  of  common  sense  as  well  as  from  antagonism 
to  the  Roman  Church.  It  was  a  pathetic  moment  for  all 
those  among  the  throng,  who  felt  for  these  gentlemen,  when 
^ey  heard  this  verse  sung  at  the  moment  when  the  Court 
appeared  on  the  scene : 

Lord,  help  us  in  our  need!  ' 

Lord,  bless  us  with  Thy  gracel 
And  on  the  saints  in  sore  distress 
Let  shine  Thy  glorious  face! 


The  eyes  of  the  Reformers  all  centered  on  the  Prince  de 

Conde,  who  was  intentionally  placed  between  Queen  Mary 
and  the  Due  d'Orleans.  Queen  Catherine  de'  Medici  sat  next 
her  son,  with  the  Cardinal  on  her  left.  The  Papal  Nuncio 
stood  behind  the  two  Queens.  The  Lieutenant-General  of  the 
kingdom  was  on  horseback,  below  the  Eoyal  stand,  with  two 
marshals  of  France  and  his  captains.  As  soon  as  the  Prince 
de  Conde  appeared,  all  the  gentlemen  sentenced  to  death,  to 
whom  he  was  known,  bowed  to  him,  and  the  brave  hunchback 
returned  the  salutation. 

"It  is  hard,"  said  he  to  the  Due  d'Orleans,  "not  to  be  civil 
to  men  who  are  about  to  die." 

The  two  other  grand  stands  were  fillec  by  invited  guests, 
by  courtiers,  and  the  attendants  on  their  Majesties ;  in  short, 
the  rank  and  fashion  of  the  chateau  from  Blois,  who  thus 
rushed  from  festivities  to  executions,  just  as  they  afterwards 
rushed  from  the  pleasures  of  Court  life  to  the  perils  of  war, 
with  a  readiness  which  to  foreigners  will  always  be  one  of 
the  mainsprings  of  their  policy  in  France.  The  poor  Syndic 
of  the  Furriers'  Guild  felt  the  keenest  joy  at  failing  to  discern 
his  son  among  the  fifty-seven  gentlemen  condemned  to  death. 

At  a  signal  from  the  Due  de  Guise,  the  clerk,  from  the 
top  of  the  scaffold,  called  out  at  once,  in  a  loud  voice ; 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  155 

"Jean-Louis-Alberic,  Baron  de  Kaunay,  guilty  of  heresy, 
of  the  crime  of  high  treason,  and  of  bearing  arms  against  the 
King's  Majesty." 

A  tall,  handsome  man  mounted  the  scaffold  with  a  firm 
step,  bowed  to  the  people  and  to  the  Court,  and  said : 

"The  indictment  is  false;  I  bore  arms  to  deliver  the  King 
from  his  enemies  of  Lorraine !" 

He  laid  his  head  on  the  block,  and  it  felL 

The  Reformers  sang: 

Thou,  Lord,  hast  proved  our  faith 
And  searched  our  soul's  desire. 
And  purified  our  froward  hearts. 
As  silver  proved  by  fire. 

"Robert-Jean-Rene  Briquemaut,  Comte  de  Villemongis, 
guilty  of  high  treason  and  rebellion  against  the  King,"  cried 
the  Recorder, 

The  Count  dipped  his  hands  in  the  Baron  de  Raunay*s 
blood,  and  said: 

"May  this  blood  be  on  the  head  of  those  who  are  truly 
guilty!" 

The  Reformers  sang  on : 

Thou,  Lord,  hast  led  our  feet 
Where  foes  had  laid  their  snare; 
To  Thee,  O  Lord,  the  glory  be. 
Though  we  should  perish  there. 

"Confess,  my  lord  Nuncio,"  said  the  Prince  de  Cond6, 
**that  if  French  gentlemen  know  how  to  plot,  they  also  know 
how  to  die." 

*^hat  hatred  you  are  entailing  on  the  heads  of  your  chil-| 
dren,  brother,"  said  the  Duchesse  de  Guise  to  the  Cardinal 
de  Lorraine. 

"The  sight  makes  me  feel  sick,"  said  the  young  King,  who 
had  turned  pale  at  the  sight  of  all  this  bloodshed. 

"Pooh I    Rebels!"  said  Catherine  de'  Medici. 


158  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

Still  the  hymn  went  on,  still  the  axe  was  plied.  At  last  the 
sublime  spectacle  of  men  who  could  die  singing,  and,  above 
all,  the  impression  produced  on  the  crowd  by  the  gradual 
dwindling  of  the  voices,  became  stronger  than  the  terror  in- 
spired by  the  Guises. 

"Mercy !"  cried  the  mob,  when  they  heard  at  last  only  the 
feeble  chant  of  a  single  victim,  reserved  till  the  last,  as  being 
the  most  important. 

He  was  standing  alone  at  the  foot  of  the  steps  leading  up 
to  the  sca£Eold,  and  sang : 

Lord,  help  us  in  our  need! 
Lord,  bless  us  with  Thy  grace! 
And  on  the  saints  in  sore  distress 
Let  shine  Thy  glorious  face! 

''Come,  Due  de  Nemours,"  said  the  Prince  de  Conde,  who 
was  tired  of  his  position;  "you,  to  whom  the  securing  of  the 
victory  is  due,  and  who  helped  to  entrap  all  these  people, — do 
not  you  feel  that  you  ought  to  ask  the  life  of  this  one?  It 
is  Castelnau,  who,  as  I  was  told,  had  your  promise  for  courte- 
ous treatment  when  he  surrendered " 

"Did  I  wait  to  see  him  here  before  trying  to  save  him?'* 
said  the  Due  de  Nemours,  stung  by  this  bitter  reproof. 

The  clerk  spoke  slowly,  intentionally,  no  doubt: 

"Michel-Jean-Louis,  Baron  de  Castelnau-Chalosse,  ac- 
cused and  convicted  of  the  crime  of  high  treason,  and  of 
fighting  against  his  Majesty  the  King." 

"No,"  retorted  Castelnau  haughtily;  "it  can  be  no  crime 
to  oppose  the  tyranny  and  intended  usurpation  of  the 
Guises !" 

The  headsman,  who  was  tired,  seeing  some  stir  in  the  royal 
seats,  rested  on  his  axe. 

"Monsieur  le  Baron,"  said  he,  "I  should  be  glad  not  to  hurt 
you.    One  minute  may  perhaps  save  you." 

And  all  the  people  shouted  again  for  mercy. 

"Come,"  said  the  King,  "a  pardon  for  poor  Castelnau,  who 
saved  the  Due  d'Orleans/' 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  157 

The  Cardinal  intentionally  misinterpreted  the  word 
"Come."  He  nodded  to  the  executioner,  and  Castelnau's  head 
fell  at  the  moment  when  the  King  pronounced  his  pardon, 

"That  one  goes  to  your  account.  Cardinal,"  said  Catherine. 

On  the  day  after  this  horrible  massacre,  the  Prince  de 
Conde  set  out  for  Navarre. 

This  affair  made  a  great  sensation  throughout  France  and 
in  every  foreign  Court.  The  torrents  of  noble  blood  theu> 
shed  caused  the  Chancellor  Olivier  such  deep  grief,  that  this 
admirable  judge,  seeing  the  end  at  which  the  Guises  were 
aiming,  felt  that  he  was  not  strong  enough  to  hold  his  own 
against  them.  Although  they  had  made  him  what  he  was, 
he  would  not  sacrifice  his  duty  and  the  Monarchy  to  them; 
he  retired  from  public  life,  suggesting  that  I'Hopital  should 
be  his  successor.  Catherine,  on  hearing  of  Olivier's  choice, 
proposed  Birague  for  the  post  of  Chancellor,  and  urged  her 
request  with  great  pertinacity.  The  Cardinal,  who  knew 
nothing  of  the  note  written  to  Catherine  by  I'Hopital,  and 
who  believed  him  still  faithful  to  the  House  of  Lorraine, 
upheld  him  as  Birague's  rival,  and  the  Queen-mother  af- 
fected to  be  overridden. 

L'Hopital  was  no  sooner  appointed  than  he  took  steps  to 
prevent  the  introduction  into  France  of  the  Holy  Office,  which 
the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine  wished  to  establish;  and  he  so 
effectually  opposed  the  Anti-Gallican  measures  and  policy  of 
the  Guises,  and  showed  himself  so  sturdy  a  Frenchman,  that 
within  three  months  of  his  appointment  he  was  exiled,  to 
reduce  his  spirit,  to  his  estate  of  le  Vignay,  near  Etampes. 

Old  Lecamus  impatiently  waited  till  the  Court  should 
leave  Amboise,  for  he  could  find  no  opportunity  of  speaking 
to  either  Queen  Mary  or  Queen  Catherine ;  but  he  hoped  to  be 
able  to  place  himself  in  their  way  at  the  time  when  the  Court 
should  be  moving  along  the  river-banli  on  the  way  back  to 
Blois.  The  furrier  dressed  himself  as  a  poor  man,  at  the 
risk  of  being  seized  as  a  spy,  and  favored  by  this  disguise,  he 
mingled  with  the  beggars  who  stood  by  the  wayside. 

After  the  departure  of  the  Prince  de  Conde,  the  Duke  and 


158  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DB'  MEDICI 

the  Cardinal  thought  that  they  had  silenced  the  Reformed 
party,  and  they  left  the  Queen-mother  a  little  more  liberty. 
Lecamus  knew  that  Catherine,  instead  of  traveling  in  a  litter, 
liked  to  ride  on  horseback  on  a  planchette,  as  it  was  called, 
a  side  saddle  with  a  foot-rest.  This  sort  of  stirrup  was  in- 
vented by  or  for  Catherine,  who,  having  hurt  her  leg,  rested 
both  feet  on  a  velvet  sling,  sitting  sideways,  and  supporting 
one  knee  in  a  hollow  cut  in  the  saddle.  As  the  Queen  had 
very  fine  legs,  she  was  accused  of  having  hit  on  this  device 
for  displaying  them. 

Thus  the  old  man  was  able  to  place  himself  in  sight  of  the 
Queen-mother;  but  when  she  saw  him,  she  affected  anger. 

"Go  away  from  hence,  good  man,  and  let  no  one  see  you 
speaking  to  me,"  she  said  with  some  anxiety.  "Get  yourself 
appointed  delegate  to  the  States-General  from  the  corporation 
of  Paris  Guilds,  and  be  on  my  side  in  the  Assembly  at 
Orleans,  you  will  then  hear  something  definite  about  your 
son " 

"Is  he  alive  ?"  said  the  old  man. 

"Alas !"  said  the  Queen,  "I  hope  it." 

And  Lecamus  was  obliged  to  return  home  with  this  sad 
reply,  and  the  secret  as  to  the  convocation  of  the  States- 
General,  which  the  Queen  had  told  him. 

Some  days  before  this,  the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine  had  re- 
ceived information  as  to  the  guilt  of  the  Court  of  Navarre. 
At  Lyons,  and  at  Mouvans  in  Dauphine,  the  Reformers, 
commanded  by  the  most  enterprising  of  the  Bourbon  princes, 
had  tried  to  infiame  the  population.  This  daring  attempt, 
after  the  dreadful  executions  at  Amboise,  astonished  the 
Guises,  who,  to  put  an  end  to  heresy,  no  doubt,  by  some 
means  of  which  they  kept  the  secret,  proposed  to  assemble 
the  States-General  at  Orleans.  Catherine  de'  Medici,  who 
saw  a  support  for  her  own  policy  in  the  representations  of 
the  nation,  consented  with  joy.  The  Cardinal,  who  aimed  at 
recapturing  his  prey,  and  overthrowing  the  House  of  Bour- 
bon, convoked  the  States  solely  to  secure  the  presence  of  the 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  ISO 

Prince  de  Conde  and  of  the  King  of  Navarre,  Antoine  de 
Bourbon,  father  of  Henri  IV.  He  then  meant  to  make  use 
of  Christophe  to  convict  the  Prince  of  high  treason  if  he 
were  able  once  more  to  get  him  into  the  King's  power. 

After  spending  two  months  in  the  prison  of  Blois,  Chris- 
tophe one  morning  was  carried  out  on  a  litter  lying  on  a  mat- 
tress, was  embarked  on  a  barge,  and  taken  up  the  river  to 
Orleans  before  a  westerly  breeze.  He  reached  that  town  the 
same  evening,  and  was  taken  to  the  famous  tower  of  Saint- 
Aignan.  Christophe,  who  knew  not  what  to  make  of  his 
transfer,  had  time  enough  for  meditation  on  his  behavior 
and  on  his  future  prospects.  There  he  remained  two  months 
more,  on  his  bed,  unable  to  use  his  legs.  His  bones  were 
crushed.  When  he  begged  to  be  allowed  the  help  of  a  sur- 
geon, the  jailer  told  him  that  his  orders  with  regard  to  his 
prisoner  were  so  strict  that  he  dared  not  allow  any  one  else 
even  to  bring  him  his  food.  This  severity,  of  which  the  effect 
was  absolutely  solitary  confinement,  surprised  Christophe. 
His  idea  was  that  he  must  be  either  hanged  or  released;  he 
knew  nothing  whatever  of  the  events  happening  at  Amboise. 

In  spite  of  the  secret  warnings  to  remain  at  home  sent 
to  them  by  Catherine  de'  Medici,  the  two  chiefs  of  the 
House  of  Bourbon  determined  to  appear  at  the  meeting  of 
the  States-General,  since  autograph  letters  from  the  King 
were  reassuring;  and  when  the  Court  was  settling  at  Orleans, 
Groslot,  the  Chancellor  of  Navarre,  announced  their  advent, 
to  the  surprise  of  all. 

Francis  II.  took  up  his  quarters  in  the  house  of  the  Chan- 
cellor of  Navarre,  who  was  also  the  Bailli  or  Eecorder  of 
Orleans.  This  man  Groslot,  whose  double  appointment  is 
one  of  the  odd  features  of  a  time  when  Eeformers  were  in 
possession  of  abbeys — Groslot,  the  Jacques  Cceur  of  Orleans, 
one  of  the  richest  citizens  of  his  day,  did  not  leave  his  name 
to  his  house.  It  came  to  be  known  as  the  Bailliage,  having 
been  purchased,  no  doubt,  from  his  heirs,  by  the  Crown,  or  by 
the  provincial  authorities,  to  be  the  seat  of  that  tribunal. 
This  elegant  structure,  built  by  the  citizens  of  the  sixteenth 


160  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

century,  adds  a  detail  to  the  history  of  a  time  when  the  King, 
the  nobility,  and  the  middle^  class  vied  with  each  other  in 
wealth,  elegance,  and  splendor;  especially  in  their  dwellings 
— as  may  be  seen  at  Varangeville,  Ango's  magnificent  manor- 
house,  and  the  Hotel  d'Hercules,  as  it  is  called,  in  Paris, 
which  still  exists,  but  in  a  condition  that  is  the  despair  of 
archaeologists  and  of  lovers  of  mediaeval  art. 

Those  who  have  been  to  Orleans  can  hardly  have  failed 
to  observe  the  Hotel  de  Ville  in  the  Place  de  I'Estape.  This 
townhall  is  the  Old  Bailli's  Court,  the  Hotel  Groslot,  the 
most  illustrious  and  most  neglected  house  in  Orleans. 

The  remains  of  this  hotel  plainly  show  to  the  archaeologist's 
eye  how  magnificent  it  must  once  have  been,  at  a  time  when 
citizens  built  their  houses  more  of  wood  than  of  stone,  and 
the  upper  ranks  alone  had  the  right  to  build  manor-houses, 
a  word  of  special  meaning.  Since  it  served  as  the  King's  resi- 
dence at  a  time  when  the  Court  made  so  much  display  of 
pomp  and  luxury,  the  Hotel  Groslot  must  then  have  been  the 
largest  and  finest  house  in  Orleans. 

It  was  on  the  Place  de  I'Estape  that  the  Guises  and  the 
King  held  a  review  of  the  municipal  guard,  to  which  Mon- 
sieur de  Cypierre  was  nominated  captain  during  the  King's 
visit.  At  that  time,  the  Cathedral  of  Sainte-Croix — after- 
wards finished  by  Henri  IV.,  who  desired  to  set  the  seal  to  his 
conversion — was  being  built,  and  the  surrounding  ground, 
strewn  with  blocks  of  stone  and  encumbered  with  piles  of 
timber,  was  held  by  the  Guises,  who  lodged  in  the  Bishop's 
palace,  now  destroyed. 

The  town  was  in  military  occupation,  and  the  measures 
adopted  by  the  Guises  plainly  showed  how  little  liberty  they 
intended  to  give  to  the  States-General,  while  the  delegates 
flocked  into  the  town  and  raised  the  rents  of  the  most 
wretched  lodgings.  The  Court,  the  municipal  militia,  the 
nobles,  and  the  citizens  all  alike  expected  some  Coup  d'Etat; 
and  their  expectations  were  fulfilled  when  the  Princes  of  the 
Blood  arrived. 

As  soon  as  the  two  Princes  entered  the  King's  room,  the 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  161 

Court  saw  with  dismay  how  insolent  was  the  behavior  of  the 
Cardinal  de  Lorraine,  who,  to  assert  his  audacious  preten- 
sions, kept  his  head  covered,  while  the  King  of  Navarre 
before  him  was  bareheaded.  Catherine  de'  Medici  stood  with 
downcast  eyes,  not  to  betray  her  indignation.  A  solemn  ex- 
planation then  took  place  between  the  young  King  and  the 
two  heads  of  the  younger  branch.  It  was  brief,  for  at  the 
first  words  spoken  by  the  Prince  de  Conde,  Francis  II.  closed 
the  discussion  by  saying: 

"My  lords  and  cousins,  I  fancied  the  incident  of  Amboise 
was  at  an  end;  it  is  not  so,  and  we  shall  see  cause  to  regret 
our  indulgence  I" 

"It  is  not  the  King  who  speaks  thus,"  said  the  Prince  de 
Conde,  "but  Messieurs  de  Guise." 

"Good-day,  monsieur,"  said  the  little  King,  crimson  with 
rage. 

As  he  went  through  the  great  hall,  the  Prince  was  stopped 
by  the  two  captains  of  the  Guards.  When  the  officer  of  the 
French  Guard  stepped  forward,  the  Prince  took  a  letter  out 
of  the  breast  of  his  doublet  and  said,  in  the  presence  of  all 
the  Court: 

"Can  you  read  me  this.  Monsieur  de  Maille-Breze  ?" 

"With  pleasure,"  said  the  French  captain: — 

"  *Cousin,  come  in  all  security ;  I  give  you  my  royal  word 
that  you  may.  If  you  need  a  safe  conduct,  these  presents  will 
serve  you.' " 

"And  signed ?"  said  the  bold  and  mischievous  hunch- 
back. 

"Signed  'Francois,'  "  said  Maille. 

"Nay,  nay,"  replied  the  Prince,  "it  is  signed  Tour  good 
cousin  and  friend,  Frangois !' — Gentlemen,"  he  went  on, 
•turning  to  the  Scotch  Guard,  "I  will  follow  you  to  the  prison 
whither  you  are  to  escort  me  by  the  King's  orders.  There  is 
enough  noble  spirit  in  this  room  to  understand  that." 

The  utter  silence  that  reigned  in  the  room  might  have 


162  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

enlightened  the  Guises,  but  silence  is  the  last  thing  that 
princes  listen  to. 

"Monseigneur,"  said  the  Cardinal  de  Tournon,  who  was 
following  the  Prince,  "since  the  day  at  Amboise  you  have 
taken  steps  in  opposition  to  royal  authority  at  Lyons  and  at 
Mouvans  in  Dauphine — things  of  which  the  King  knew  noth- 
ing when  he  addressed  you  in  those  terms." 

"Eascals !"  cried  the  Prince,  laughing. 

"You  made  a  public  declaration  against  the  Mass,  and  in 
favor  of  heresy " 

*^e  are  masters  in  Navarre,"  said  the  Prince. 

"In  Beam,  you  mean !  But  you  owe  homage  to  the 
Crown,"  replied  the  President  de  Thou. 

"Ah,  you  are  here.  President !"  exclaimed  the  Prince  iron- 
ically.    "And  is  all  the  Parlement  with  you?" 

With  these  words  the  Prince  flashed  a  look  of  contempt 
at  the  Cardinal  and  left  the  room;  he  understood  that  his 
head  was  in  peril. 

On  the  following  day,  when  Messieurs  de  Thou,  de  Viole, 
d'Espesse,  Bourdin  the  public  prosecutor,  and  du  Tillet,  the 
cliief  clerk,  came  into  his  prison,  he  kept  them  standing,  and 
expressed  his  regrets  at  seeing  them  engaged  on  a  business 
which  did  not  concern  them ;  then  he  said  to  the  clerk : 

"Write." 

And  he  dictated  as  follows : 

"I,  Louis  de  Bourbon,  Prince  de  Conde,  peer  of  the  realm. 
Marquis  de  Conti,  Comte  de  Soissons,  Prince  of  the  Blood 
of  France,  formally  refuse  to  recognize  any  Commission  ap- 
pointed to  try  me,  inasmuch  as  that  by  virtue  of  my  rank  and 
the  privileges  attaching  to  every  member  of  the  Eoyal  Family, 
I  can  only  be  attainted,  heard,  and  judged  by  a  Parlement  of 
all  the  peers  in  their  places,  the  Chambers  in  full  assembly,' 
and  the  King  seated  on  the  bed  of  justice. — You  ought  to 
know  this  better  than  any  one,  gentlemen,  and  this  is  all  you 
will  get  of  me.    For  the  rest,  I  trust  in  God  and  my  Right." 

The  magistrates  proceeded  nevertheless,  in  spite  of  the 
determined  silence  of  the  Prince. 


ABOUT  CA"^  tea 

his  ;  wider  Ov                                                     waji 

the  '■    •    "                                                            r'» ; 

for  *  i  at 
the  ' 

diiv» 

Ki,   wt-re    i 

J  ..i:d  thougi. 

atx?  with   (": 

Each  tiim>  h«  waa  tfianimtifl  by  iiie  niagistratt- 
entreiich.»d  himself  in  systematic  denial,  wh' 
prolonged  the  aftair  til!  the  meeting  of  the  Stat 

Lecamus,  wlchAshJphe^iipiti^nt  of  gettin  ■ 
by  tlje  citizens  of  !',  ••     >~  a  deputy  for  th»- 
cttue  to  Orleans  .^  after  the  Prin 

p^,  ..i    ./ ...1.  .  u  V  .,;  li;tampes,  inci 

'ue  in  the  w 
■  under  t'r 

darn 
stud}  t  .. 
at  Court 
plan  for  ri.-sc; 
recourse  io  i^' 
rier.    No  ont 
him  any  satislat ' 
and  he  had  sunk  ' 
to  addros'^  himsen 
sieur  de  Thou  ha-.  .: 
of  the  Prince  de  Cor 
great  jurist,     'i'ho  S;  • 
and  learned  that  f^Iiri 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  163 

The  King  of  Navarre  was  at  liberty,  but  closely  watched; 
his  prison  was  a  wider  one  than  the  Prince's,  and  that  was 
the  whole  difference  between  his  position  and  his  brother's; 
for  the  heads  of  the  King  and  the  Prince  were  to  be  felled  at 
the  same  time. 

So  Christophe  was  so  closely  confined  by  order  of  the  Car- 
dinal and  the  Lieutenant-General  of  the  kingdom  only  to 
afford  proof  to  the  judges  of  the  Prince's  guilt.  The  letters 
found  on  the  person  of  La  Sagne,  the  Prince's  secretary, 
intelligible  to  a  statesman,  were  not  clear  enough  for  the 
judges.  The  Cardinal  had  thought  of  bringing  the  Prince 
accidentally  face  to  face  with  Christophe,  who  had  been, 
placed,  not  without  a  purpose,  in  a  lower  room  of  the  tower 
of  Saint-Aignan,  and  the  window  looked  out  on  the  yard. 
Each  time  he  was  examined  by  the  magistrates,  Christophe 
entrenched  himself  in  systematic  denial,  which  naturally 
prolonged  the  affair  till  the  meeting  of  the  States-General. 

Lecamus,  who  had  made  a  point  of  getting  himself  elected 
by  the  citizens  of  Paris  as  a  deputy  for  the  "Third  Estate," 
came  to  Orleans  a  few  days  after  the  Prince's  arrest.  This 
event,  of  which  he  had  news  at  Etampes,  increased  his  alarms, 
for  he  understood — he  who  alone  in  the  world  knew  of  his 
son's  interview  with  the  Prince  under  the  Pont  au  Change — 
that  Christophe's  fate  was  bound  up  with  that  of  the  rashly 
daring  head  of  the  Eeformation  party.  So  he  determined  to 
study  the  mysterious  interests  which  had  become  so  entangled 
at  Court  since  the  States  had  met,  so  as  to  hit  upon  some 
plan  for  rescuing  his  son.  It  was  in  vain  to  think  of  having 
recourse  to  Queen  Catherine,  who  refused  to  receive  the  fur- 
rier. No  one  of  the  Court  to  whom  he  had  access  could  give 
him  any  satisfactory  information  with  regard  to  Christophe, 
and  he  had  sunk  to  such  depths  of  despair  that  he  was  about 
to  address  himself  to  the  Cardinal,  when  he  heard  that  Mon- 
sieur de  Thou  had  accepted  the  office  of  one  of  the  judges 
of  the  Prince  de  Conde — a  blot  on  the  good  fame  of  tnat 
great  jurist.  The  Syndic  went  to  call  on  his  son's  patron, 
and  learned  that  Christophe  was  alive  but  a  prisoner. 


184  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICt 

Tourillon,  the  glover,  to  whose  house  la  Eenaudie  had  sent 
Christophe,  had  offered  a  room  to  the  Sieur  Lecamus  for  the 
whole  time  during  which  the  States-General  should  be  sitting. 
He  believed  the  furrier  to  be,  like  himself,  secretly  attached  to 
the  Reformed  religion;  but  he  soon  perceived  that  a  father 
who  fears  for  his  son's  life  thinks  no  more  of  shades  of  re- 
ligious dogma;  he  throws  himself  soul  and  body  on  the 
mercy  of  God,  never  thinking  of  the  badge  he  wears  before 
inen. 

The  old  man,  repulsed  at  every  attempt,  wandered  half- 
witless  about  the  streets.  Against  all  his  expectations,  his 
gold  was  of  no  avail;  Monsieur  de  Thou  had  warned  him 
that  even  if  he  should  bribe  some  servant  of  the  Guise  house- 
hold, he  would  only  be  so  much  out  of  pocket,  for  the  Duke 
and  the  Cardinal  allowed  nothing  to  be  known  concerning 
Christophe.  This  judge,  whose  fair  fame  is  somewhat  tar- 
nished by  the  part  he  played  at  this  juncture,  had  tried  to 
give  the  unhappy  father  some  hope;  but  he  himself  trembled 
for  his  godson's  life,  and  his  consolations  only  added  to  the 
furrier's  alarm.  The  old  man  was  always  prowling  round 
the  house;  in  three  months  he  grew  quite  thin. 

His  only  hope  now  lay  in  the  warm  friendship  which  had 
so  long  bound  him  to  the  Hippocrates  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. Ambroise  Pare  tried  to  say  a  word  to  Queen  Mary 
as  he  came  out  of  the  King's  room;  but  the  instant  he  men- 
tioned Christophe,  the  daughter  of  the  Stuarts,  annoyed  by 
the  prospect  before  her  in  the  event  of  any  ill  befalling  the 
King,  whom  she  believed  to  have  been  poisoned  by  the  Re- 
formers, as  he  had  been  taken  suddenly  ill,  replied : 

"If  my  uncles  would  take  my  opinion,  such  a  fanatic  would 
have  been  hanged  before  now." 

On  the  evening  when  this  ominous  reply  had  been  repeated 
to  Lecamus  by  his  friend  Pare,  on  the  Place  de  TEstape,  he 
went  home  half  dead,  and  retired  to  his  room,  refusing  to 
eat  any  supper. 

Tourillon,  very  uneasy,  went  upstairs,  and  found  the  old 
man  in  tears;  and  as  the  poor  furrier's  feeble  eyes  showed 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  165 

the  reddened  and  wrinkled  linings  of  the  lids,  the  glover 
believed  that  they  were  tears  of  blood. 

"Be  comforted,  father/'  said  the  Huguenot,  "the  citizens 
of  Orleans  are  enraged  at  seeing  their  town  treated  as  if  it 
had  been  taken  by  assault,  and  guarded  by  Monsieur  de 
Cypierre's  soldiery.  If  the  Prince  de  Conde's  life  should 
be  in  danger,  we  should  very  soon  demolish  the  tower  of 
Saint- Aignan,  for  the  whole  town  is  on  the  Eeformers'  side, 
and  would  rise  in  rebellion,  you  may  be  quite  certain." 

"But  even  if  the  Guises  were  seized,  would  their  death  give 
me  back  my  son?"  said  the  unhappy  father. 

At  this  instant  there  was  a  timid  rap  at  the  outer  door; 
Tourillon  went  down  to  open  it.  It  was  quite  dark.  In  these 
troubled  times  the  master  of  every  household  took  elaborate 
precautions.  Tourillon  looked  out  through  the  bars  of  a  wicket 
in  the  door,  and  saw  a  stranger,  whose  accent  betrayed  him  as 
an  Italian.  This  man,  dressed  in  black,  asked  to  see  Lecamus 
on  matters  of  business,  and  Tourillon  showed  him  in.  At  the 
sight  of  the  stranger  the  old  furrier  quaked  visibly,  but  the 
visitor  had  time  to  lay  a  finger  on  his  lips.  Lecamus,  under- 
standing the  gesture,  immediately  said : 

"You  have  come  to  offer  furs  for  sale,  I  suppose  ?" 

"Si"  replied  the  stranger  in  Italian,  with  an  air  of  privity. 

This  man  was,  in  fact,  the  famous  Ruggieri,  the  Queen- 
mother's  astrologer.  Tourillon  went  downstairs,  perceiving 
that  he  was  not  wanted. 

"Where  can  we  talk  without  fear  of  being  overheard?" 
said  the  astute  Florentine. 

"Only  in  the  open  fields,"  replied  Lecamus.  "But  we  shall 
not  be  allowed  out  of  the  town;  you  know  how  strictly  the; 
gates  are  guarded.  No  one  can  pass  out  without  an  order 
from  Monsieur  de  Cypierre,  not  even  a  member  of  the  As- 
sembly like  myself.  Indeed,  at  to-morrow's  sitting  we  all  in- 
tend to  complain  of  this  restriction  on  our  liberty." 

"Work  like  a  mole,  never  let  your  paws  be  seen  in  any  kind 
of  business,"  replied  the  wily  Florentine.     "To-morrow  will 
no  doubt  be  a  decisive  day.    From  my  calculations,  to-morrow, 
or  soon  a  ftor.  vou  will  perhaps  see  your  son." 
— I J 


166  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

"God  grant  it !  Though  you  are  said  to  deal  only  with  the 
Devil  I" 

"Come  and  see  me  at  home,"  said  the  astrologer,  smiling. 
"I  watch  the  stars  from  the  tower  belonging  to  the  Sieur 
Touchet  du  Beauvais,  the  Lieutenant  of  the  Bailiwick,  whose 
daughter  has  found  favor  in  the  eyes  of  the  little  Due  d'Or- 
leans.  I  have  cast  the  girl's  horoscope,  and  it  does  in  fact  por- 
tend that  she  will  become  a  great  lady  and  be  loved  by  a  King. 
The  Lieutenant  is  a  clever  fellow,  he  is  interested  in  science, 
and  the  Queen  found  me  lodgings  with  the  good  man,  who  is 
cunning  enough  to  be  a  rabid  Guisard  till  Charles  IX.  comes 
to  the  throne." 

The  furrier  and  the  astrologer  made  their  way  to  the  Sieur 
du  Beauvais'  house  without  being  seen  or  interfered  with; 
and  in  the  event  of  Lecamus  being  discovered,  Euggieri  meant 
to  afford  him  a  pretext  in  his  desire  to  consult  the  astrologer 
as  to  his  son's  fate. 

When  they  had  climbed  to  the  top  of  the  turret  where  the 
astrologer  had  established  himself,  Lecamus  said: 

"Then  my  son  is  really  alive  ?" 

"At  present,"  said  the  Italian.  "But  we  must  make  haste 
to  save  him.  Eemember,  0  seller  of  skins,  that  I  would  not 
give  two  farthings  for  yours  if  in  the  whole  course  of  your 
life  you  breathe  one  word  of  what  I  am  about  to  tell  you." 

"The  warning  is  not  needed,  master.  I  have  been  furrier 
to  the  Court  since  the  time  of  the  late  King  Louis  XII.,  and 
this  is  the  fourth  reign  I  have  lived  under." 

"And  you  may  soon  say  the  fifth,"  replied  Euggieri. 

'^hat  do  you  know  of  my  son?" 

"Well,  he  has  been  through  the  torture-chamber." 

"Poor  boy !"  sighed  the  old  man,  looking  up  to  heaven. 

"His  knees  and  ankles  are  a  little  damaged,  but  he  has 
gained  royal  protection,  which  will  be  over  him  as  long  as  he 
lives,"  the  Florentine  added,  on  seeing  the  father's  horror. 
"Your  little  Christophe  has  done  good  service  to  our  great 
Queen  Catherine.  If  we  can  get  your  son  out  of  the  clutches 
of  the  Cardinal,  you  will  see  him  Councillor  in  the  Parlement 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  167 

yet.  And  a  man  would  let  his  bones  be  broken  three  times 
over  to  find  himself  in  the  good  graces  of  that  beloved  sov- 
ereign— a  real  genius  she,  who  will  triumph  over  every  ob- 
stacle. 

"I  have  cast  the  horoscope  of  the  Due  de  Guise;  he  will 
be  killed  within  a  year.  Come  now,  Christophe  did  meet  the 
Prince  de  Conde " 

"You  know  the  future,  do  not  jjsBl  know  the  past  ?"  the  fur- 
rier put  in. 

"I  am  not  questioning  you,  I  am  informing  you,  good  man. 
Well,  your  son  will  be  placed  to-morrow  where  the  Prince  will 
pass  by.  If  he  recognizes  him,  or  if  the  Prince  recognizes 
your  son.  Monsieur  de  Conde  forfeits  his  head.  As  to  what 
would  become  of  his  accomplice — God  only  knows !  But  be 
easy.  Neither  your  son  nor  the  Prince  is  doomed  to  die;  I 
have  read  their  destiny;  they  will  live.  But  by  what  means 
they  may  escape  I  know  not.  Now  we  will  do  what  we  can, 
apart  from  the  certainty  of  my  calculations.  Monsieur  de 
Conde  shall  get  a  prayer-book  to-morrow,  delivered  to  him 
by  a  safe  hand,  in  which  he  shall  find  a  warning.  God  grant 
that  your  son  may  be  secretive,  for  he  can  have  no  warning ! 
And  a  mere  flash  of  recognition  would  cost  the  Prince  his 
life.  Thus,  although  the  Queen-mother  has  every  reason  to 
depend  on  Christophe's  fidelity " 

"He  has  been  put  to  cruel  tests,"  cried  the  furrier. 

"Do  not  speak  in  that  way.  Do  you  suppose  that  the  Queen 
is  dancing  for  joy?  She  is  indeed  going  to  take  her  meas- 
ures exactly  as  though  the  Guises  had  decided  on  the  Prince's 
death ;  and  she  is  wise,  that  shrewd  and  prudent  Queen  !  Now 
she  counts  on  you  to  help  her  in  every  way.  You  have  some 
influence  in  the  ^Third  Estate,'  where  you  are  the  representa- 
tive of  the  Guilds  of  Paris;  and  even  if  the  Guisards  should 
promise  to  set  your  son  at  liberty,  try  to  deceive  them  and 
stir  up  your  class  against  the  Princes  of  Lorraine.  Vote  for 
the  Queen-mother  as  Eegent ;  the  King  of  Navarre  will  give 
his  assent  to  that  publicly,  to-morrow,  in  the  Assembly." 

"But  the  King?" 


168  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

"The  King  will  die,"  said  Ruggieri ;  "I  have  read  it  in  the 
stars.  What  the  Queen  requires  of  you  in  the  Assembly  is 
very  simple;  but  she  needs  a  greater  service  from  you  than 
that.  You  maintained  the  great  Ambroise  Pare  while  he  was 
a  student ;  you  are  his  friend " 

"Ambroise  loves  the  Due  de  Guise  in  these  days  better  than 
he  loves  me,"  said  the  furrier.  "And  he  is  right;  he  owes' 
his  place  to  him.  Still,  he  is  faithful  to  the  King.  And,  al- 
though he  has  a  leaning  towards  the  Reformation,  he  will  do 
nothing  but  his  duty," 

"A  plague  on  all  honest  men !"  cried  the  Florentine.  "Am- 
broise boasted  this  evening  that  he  could  pull  the  little  King" 
through.  If  the  King  recovers  his  health,  the  Guises  must 
triumph,  the  Princes  are  dead  men,  the  House  of  Bourbon  is 
extinct,  we  go  back  to  Florence,  your  son  is  hanged,  and  the 
Guises  will  make  short  work  of  the  rest  of  the  Boyal 
Family " 

"Great  God!"  cried  Lecamus. 

"Do  not  exclaim  in  that  way ;  it  is  like  a  citizen  who  knows 
nothing  of  Court  manners;  but  go  forthwith  to  Ambroise, 
and  find  out  what  he  means  to  do  to  save  the  King.  If  it 
seems  at  all  certain,  come  and  tell  me  what  the  operation 
is  in  which  he  has  such  faith." 

"But "  Lecamus  began. 

"Obey  me  blindly,  my  good  friend,  otherwise  you  will  be 
dazzled." 

"He  is  right,"  thought  the  furrier. 

And  he  went  off  to  the  King's  surgeon,  who  lived  in  an 
inn  in  the  Place  du  Martroi. 

At  this  juncture  Catherine  de'  Medici  found  herself,  polit- 
ically speaking,  in  the  same  extremities  as  she  had  been  in 
when  Christophe  had  seen  her  at  Blois.  Though  she  had 
inured  herself  to  the  struggle,  and  had  exerted  her  fine  in- 
tellect in  that  first  defeat,  her  situation,  though  precisely 
the  same  now  as  then,  was  even  more  critical  and  dangerous 
than  at  the  time  of  the  riots  at  Amboise.    Events  had  grown 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  169 

in  magnitude,  and  the  Queen  had  grown  with  them.  Though 
she  seemed  to  proceed  in  agreement  with  the  Princes  of  Lor- 
raine, Catherine  held  the  threads  of  a  conspiracy  skilfully 
plotted  against  her  terrible  associates,  and  was  only  waiting 
for  a  favorable  moment  to  drop  her  mask. 

The  Cardinal  had  just  found  himself  deceived  by  Cath- 
erine. The  crafty  Italian  had  seen  in  the  younger  branch 
of  the  Eoyal  Family  an  obstacle  she  could  use  to  cHeck  the 
pretensions  of  the  Guises ;  and,  in  spite  of  the  counsel  of  the 
two  Gondis,  who  advised  her  to  leave  the  Guises  to  act  with 
what  violence  they  could  against  the  Bourbons,  she  had,  by 
warning  the  Queen  of  Navarre,  brought  to  nought  the  plot  to 
Beize  Beam  concerted  by  the  Guises  with  the  King  of  Spain. 
As  this  State  secret  was  known  only  to  themselves  and  to 
Catherine,  the  Princes  of  Lorraine  were  assured  of  her  be- 
trayal, and  they  wished  to  send  hex  back  to  Florence;  but 
to  secure  proofs  of  Catherine's  treachery  to  the  State — the 
House  of  Lorraine  was  the  State — the  Duke  and  Cardinal 
had  just  made  her  privy  to  their  scheme  for  making  away 
with  the  King  of  Navarre. 

The  precautions  which  were  immediately  taken  by  Antoine 
de  Bourbon  proved  to  the  brothers  that  this  secret,  known 
but  to  three  people,  had  been  divulged  by  the  Queen-mother. 
The  Cardinal  de  Lorraine  accused  Catherine  of  her  breach  of 
faith  in  the  presence  of  the  King,  threatening  her  with  ban- 
ishment if  any  fresh  indiscretions  on  her  part  should  im- 
peril the  State.  Catherine,  seeing  herself  in  imminent  dan- 
ger, was  compelled  to  act  as  a  high-handed  sovereign.  She 
gave  ample  proof  indeed  of  her  fine  abilities,  but  it  must  also 
be  confessed  that  she  was  well  served  by  the  friends  shei 
trusted. 

L'Hopital  sent  her  a  letter  in  these  terms : 

"Do  not  allow  a  Prince  of  th^  Blood  to  be  killed  by  a 
committee,  or  you  will  soon  be  carried  off  yourself." 

Catherine  sent  Birague  to  le  Vignay,  desiring  the  Chan- 


170  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDIOI 

cellor  to  come  to  the  Assembly  of  the  States-General,  although 
he  was  in  banishment.  Birague  returned  the  same  evening 
with  I'Hopital,  halting  within  three  leagues  of  Orleans,  and 
the  Chancellor  thus  declared  himself  on  the  side  of  the 
Queen-mother. 

Chiverni,  whose  fidelity  was  with  good  reason  regarded 
as  doubtful  by  the  Guises,  had  fled  from  Orleans,  and  by 
a  forced  march,  which  nearly  was  his  death,  he  reached 
Ecouen  in  ten  hours.  He  there  told  the  Connetable  de  Mont- 
morency of  the  danger  his  nephew  the  Prince  de  Conde  was 
in,  and  of  the  encroachments  of  the  Guises.  Anne  de  Mont- 
morency, furious  at  learning  that  the  Prince  owed  his  life 
merely  to  the  sudden  illness  of  which  Francis  II.  was  dying, 
marched  up  with  fifteen  hundred  horse  and  a  hundred  gen- 
tlemen under  arms.  The  more  effectually  to  surprise  the 
Guises,  he  had  avoided  Paris,  coming  from  flcouen  to  Corbeil, 
and  from  Corbeil  to  Pithiviers  by  the  Valley  of  the  Essonne. 

"Man  to  man,  and  both  to  pull,  leaves  each  but  little  wool !" 
he  said,  on  the  occasion  of  this  dashing  advance. 

Anne  de  Montmorency,  who  had  been  the  preserver  of 
France  when  Charles  V.  invaded  Provence,  and  the  Due  de 
Guise,  who  had  checked  the  Emperor's  second  attempt  at 
Metz,  were,  in  fact,  the  two  greatest  French  warriors  of  their 
time. 

Catherine  had  waited  for  the  right  moment  to  stir  up  the 
hatred  of  the  man  whom  the  Guises  had  overthrown.  The 
Marquis  de  Simeuse,  in  command  of  the  town  of  Gien,  on 
hearing  of  the  advance  of  so  considerable  a  force  as  the  Con- 
notable  brought  with  him,  sprang  to  horse,  hoping  to  warn 
the  Duke  in  time.  The  Queen-mother,  meanwhile,  certain 
that  the  Connetable  would  come  to  his  nephew's  rescue,  and 
confident  of  the  Chancellor's  devotion  to  the  royal  cause, 
had  fanned  the  hopes  and  encouraged  the  spirit  of  the  Re- 
formed party.  The  Colignys  and  the  adherents  of  the  im- 
periled House  of  Bourbon  had  made  common  cause  with  the 
Queen-mother's  partisans;  a  coalition  between  various  an- 
tagonistic interests,  attacked  by  a  common  foe,  was  silently 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  171 

formed  in  the  Assembly  of  the  States,  where  the  question  was 
boldly  broached  of  making  Catherine  Regent  of  France  in  the 
event  of  the  young  King's  death.  Catherine  herself,  whose 
faith  in  astrology  was  far  greater  than  her  belief  in  Church 
i  dogmas,  had  ventured  to  extremes  against  her  foes  when  she 
saw  her  son  dying  at  the  end  of  the  time  fixed  as  his  term 
of  life  by  the  famous  soothsayer  brought  to  the  chateau  de 
Chaumont  by  Nostradamus. 

A  few  days  before  the  terrible  close  of  his  reign,  Francis 
II.  had  chosen  to  go  out  on  the  Loire,  so  as  not  to  be  in  the 
town  at  the  hour  of  the  Prince  de  Conde's  intended  execution. 
Having  surrendered  the  Prince's  head  to  the  Cardinal  de 
Lorraine,  he  feared  a  riot  quite  as  much  as  he  dreaded  the 
supplications  of  the  Princesse  de  Conde.  As  he  was  embark- 
ing, a  fresh  breeze,  such  as  often  sweeps  the  Loire  at  the 
approach  of  winter,  gave  him  so  violent  an  earache  that  he 
was  forced  to  return  home;  he  went  to  bed,  never  to  leave  it 
alive. 

In  spite  of  the  disagreement  of  the  physicians,  who,  all 
but  Chapelain,  were  his  enemies  and  opponents,  Ambroise 
Pare  maintained  that  an  abscess  had  formed  in  the  head, 
and  that  if  no  outlet  were  pierced  the  chances  of  the  King's 
death  were  greater  every  day. 

In  spite  of  the  late  hour  and  the  rigorous  enforcement  of 
the  curfew  at  that  time  in  Orleans,  which  was  ruled  as  in  a 
state  of  siege,  Pare's  lamp  was  shining  in  his  window  where 
he  was  studying.  Lecamus  called  to  him  from  below;  and 
when  he  had  announced  his  name,  the  surgeon  gave  orders 
that  his  old  friend  should  be  admitted. 

"You  give  yourself  no  rest,  Ambroise,  and  while  saving 
the  lives  of  others  you  will  wear  out  your  own,"  said  the 
furrier  as  he  went  in. 

Indeed,  there  sat  the  surgeon,  his  books  open,  his  instru- 
ments lying  about,  and  before  him  a  skull  not  long  since 
buried,  dug  up  from  the  grave,  and  perforated. 

"I  must  save  the  King." 

"Then  you  are  very  sure  you  can,  Ambroise  ?"  said  the  old 
man,  shuddering. 


173  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE  MEDICI 

"As  sure  as  I  am  alive.  The  King,  my  good  old  friend, 
has  some  evil  humor  festering  on  his  hrain,  which  will  fill  it 
up,  and  the  danger  is  pressing;  but  by  piercing  the  skull  I 
let  the  matter  out  and  free  his  head.  I  have  already  per- 
formed this  operation  three  times ;  it  was  invented  by  a  Pied- 
montese,  and  I  have  been  so  luckj'  as  to  improve  upon  it.  The 
first  time  it  was  at  the  siege  of  Metz,  on  Monsieur  de  Pienne, 
whom  I  got  out  of  the  scrape,  and  who  has  only  been  all  thft 
wiser  for  it;  the  second  time  it  saved  the  life  of  a  poor  man 
on  whom  I  wished  to  test  the  certainty  of  this  daring  opera- 
tion to  which  Monsieur  de  Pienne  had  submitted;  the  third 
time  was  on  a  gentleman  in  Paris,  who  is  now  perfectly  well. 
Trepanning — for  that  is  the  name  given  to  it — is  as  yet 
little  known.  The  sufferers  object  to  it  on  the  score  of  the 
imperfection  of  the  instrument,  but  that  I  have  been  able 
to  improve.  So  now  I  am  experimenting  on  this  head,  to  be 
sure  of  not  failing  to-morrow  on  the  King's." 

"You  must  be  very  sure  of  yourself,  for  your  head  will  be 
in  danger  if  you " 

"I  will  wager  my  life  that  he  is  cured,"  replied  Pare, 
with  the  confidence  of  genius.  "Oh,  my  good  friend,  what  is 
it  to  make  a  hole  in  a  skull  with  due  care?  It  is  what  sol- 
diers do  every  day  with  no  care  at  all." 

"But  do  you  know,  my  boy,"  said  the  citizen,  greatly  dar- 
ing, "that  if  you  save  the  King,  you  ruin  France?  Do  you 
know  that  your  instrument  will  place  the  crown  of  the  Valois 
on  the  head  of  a  Prince  of  Lorraine,  calling  himself  the 
direct  heir  of  Charlemagne?  Do  you  know  that  surgery 
and  politics  are,  at  this  moment,  at  daggers  drawn?  Yes, 
the  triumph  of  your  genius  will  be  the  overthrow  of  your 
religion.  If  the  Guises  retain  the  Eegenc}',  the  blood  of  the 
Reformers  will  flow  in  streams !  Be  a  great  citizen  rather 
than  a  great  surgeon,  and  sleep  through  to-morrow  morning, 
leaving  the  King's  room  free  to  those  leeches  who,  if  they 
do  not  save  the  King,  will  save  France." 

"I !"  cried  Pare.  "I — leave  a  man  to  die  when  I  can  cure 
him?    Never!    If  I  am  to  be  hanged  for  a  Calvinist,  I  will 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'   MEDICI  173 

go  to  the  chateau,  all  the  same,  right  early  to-morrow.  l)o 
not  you  know  that  the  only  favor  I  mean  to  ask,  when  I 
have  saved  the  King,  is  your  Christophe's  life?  There  will 
surely  be  a  moment  when  Queen  Mary  can  refuse  me 
nothing  ?" 

"Alas,  my  friend,  has  not  the  little  King  already  refused 
the  Princesse  de  Conde  any  jJardon  for  her  husband?  Do 
not  kill  your  religion  by  enabling  the  man  to  live  who  ought 
to  die." 

"Are  you  going  to  puzzle  yourself  by  trying  to  find  out 
how  God  means  to  dispose  of  things  in  the  future?"  said 
Pare.  "Honest  folks  have  but  one  motto — 'Do  your  duty, 
come  what  may.' — I  did  this  at  the  siege  of  Calais  when  I 
set  my  foot  on  the  Grand  Master;  I  risked  being  cut  down 
by  all  his  friends  and  attendants,  and  here  I  am,  surgeon  to 
the  King;  I  am  a  Eeformer,  and  yet  I  can  call  the  Guises 
my  friends. — I  will  save  the  King!"  cried  the  surgeon,  with 
the  sacred  enthusiasm  of  conviction  that  genius  knows,  "and 
fxod  will  take  care  of  France !" 

There  was  a  knock  at  the  door,  and  a  few  minutes  later 
one  of  Ambroise  Pare's  servants  gave  a  note  to  Lecamus,  who 
read  aloud  these  ominous  words : 

"A  scaffold  is  being  erected  at  the  Convent  of  the  Eecollets 
for  the  beheading  of  the  Prince  de  Conde  to-morrow." 

Ambroise  and  Lecamus  looked  at  each  other,  both  overpow- 
ered with  horror. 

"I  will  go  and  make  sure,"  said  the  furrier. 

Out  on  the  square,  Euggieri  took  Lecamus  by  the  arm, 
asking  what  was  Pare's  secret  for  saving  the  King;  but  the 
old  man,  fearing  some  treachery,  insisted  on  going  to  see  the 
scaffold.  So  the  astrologer  and  the  furrier  went  together  to 
the  Eecollets,  where,  in  fact,  they  found  carpenters  at  work 
by  torchlight. 

"Hey  day,  my  friend,"  said  Lecamus  to  one  of  them;  "what 
business  is  this  ?" 


174  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDIOI 

"We  are  preparing  to  hang  some  heretics,  since  the  bleeding 
at  Amboise  did  not  cure  them,"  said  a  young  friar,  who  was 
superintending  the  workmen. 

"Monseigneur  the  Cardinal  does  well,"  said  the  prudent 
Ruggieri.    "But  in  my  country  we  do  even  better." 

"What  do  you  do?" 

'^e  burn  them,  brother." 

Lecamus  was  obliged  to  lean  on  the  astrologer;  his  legs 
refused  to  carry  him,  for  he  thought  that  his  son  might  next, 
day  be  swinging  to  one  of  those  gibbets.  The  poor  old  man 
stood  between  two  sciences — astrology  and  medicine;  each 
promised  to  save  his  son,  for  whom  the  scaffold  was  visibly 
rising.  In  this  confusion  of  mind  he  was  as  wax  in  the 
hands  of  the  Florentine. 

*^ell,  my  most  respectable  vendor  of  vair,  what  have  you 
to  say  to  these  pleasantries  of  Lorraine?"  said  Euggieri. 

"Woe  the  day!  You  know  I  would  give  my  own  skin  to 
see  my  boy's  safe  and  sound." 

"That  is  what  I  call  talking  like  a  skinner,"  replied  the 
Italian.  "But  if  you  will  explain  to  me  the  operation  that 
Ambroise  proposes  to  perform  on  the  King,  I  will  guarantee 
your  son's  life." 

"Truly?"  cried  the  old  furrier. 

'^What  shall  I  swear  by  ?"  said  Euggieri. 

On  this  the  unhappy  old  man  repeated  his  conversation 
with  Pare  to  the  Italian,  who  was  off,  leaving  the  disconsolate 
father  in  the  road  the  instant  he  had  heard  the  great  sur- 
geon's secret. 

*^hom  the  devil  does  he  mean  mischief  to?"  cried  Le- 
camus, as  he  saw  Euggieri  running  at  his  utmost  speed 
towards  the  Place  de  I'Estape. 

Lecamus  knew  nothing  of  the  terrible  scene  which  was 
going  on  by  the  King's  bedside,  and  which  had  led  to  the 
order  being  given  for  the  erection  of  the  scaffold  for  the 
Prince,  who  had  been  sentenced  in  default,  as  it  were,  though 
his  execution  was  postponed  for  the  moment  by  the  King's 
illness. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  175 

There  was  no  one  in  the  hall,  on  the  stairs,  or  in  the  court- 
yard of  the  Bailli's  house  but  those  on  actual  duty.  The 
crowd  of  courtiers  had  resorted  to  the  lodgings  of  the  King 
of  Navarre,  who,  by  the  law  of  the  land,  was  Eegent.  The 
French  nobles,  terrified  indeed  by  the  insolence  of  the  Guises, 
felt  an  impulse  to  close  their  ranks  round  the  chief  of  the 
younger  branch,  seeing  that  the  Queen-mother  was  sub- 
servient to  the  Guises,  and  not  understanding  her  Italian 
policy.  Antoine  de  Bourbon,  faithful  to  his  secret  compact- 
with  Catherine,  was  not  to  renounce  his  claim  to  the  re- 
gency in  her  favor  till  the  States-General  should  have  voted 
on  the  question. 

This  absolute  desertion  had  struck  the  Grand  Master  when, 
on  his  return  from  a  walk  through  the  town — as  a  precau- 
tionary measure — he  found  no  one  about  the  King  but  the 
friends  dependent  on  his  fortunes.  The  room  where  Francis 
II.'s  bed  had  been  placed  adjoins  the  great  hall  of  the 
bailiff's  residence,  and  was  at  that  time  lined  with  oak  panel- 
ing. The  ceiling,  formed  of  narrow  boards,  skilfully  ad- 
justed and  painted,  showed  an  arabesque  pattern  in  blue  on 
a  gold  ground,  and  a  piece  of  it,  pulled  down  about  fifty  years 
ago,  has  been  preserved  by  a  collector  of  antiquities.  This 
room,  hung  with  tapestry,  and  the  floor  covered  with  a  carpet, 
was  so  dark  that  the  burning  tapers  scarcely  gave  it  light. 
The  enormous  bedstead,  with  four  columnar  posts  and  silk 
curtains,  looked  like  a  tomb.  On  one  side  of  the  bed,  by  the 
King's  pillow,  were  Queen  Mary  and  the  Cardinal  de  Lor- 
raine ;  on  the  other  sat  Catherine  in  an  armchair.  The  phy- 
sician-in-ordinary, the  famous  Jean  Chapelain,  afterwards  in 
attendance  on  Charles  IX.,  was  standing  by  the  fireplace. 
Perfect  silence  reigned. 

The  young  King,  pale  and  slight,  lost  in  the  sheets,  waa 
hardly  to  be  seen,  with  his  small,  puckered  face  on  the  pillow. 
The  Duchesse  de  Guise,  seated  on  a  stool,  was  supporting 
Mary  Stuart;  and  near  Catherine,  in  a  window  recess, 
Madame  de  Fieschi  was  watching  the  Queen-mother's  looks 
and  gestures,  for  she  understood  the  perils  of  her  position. 


1T8  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE*  MEDICI 

In  the  great  hall,  notwithstanding  the  late  hour.  Monsieur 
de  Cypierre,  the  Due  d'Orleans'  tutor,  appointed  to  be  gov- 
ernor of  the  town,  occupied  a  chimney  corner  with  the  two 
Gondis.  Cardinal  de  Tournon,  who  at  this  crisis  had  taken 
part  with  Queen  Catherine,  on  finding  himself  treated  as  an 
inferior  by  the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine,  whose  equal  he  un- 
doubtedly was  in  the  Church,  was  conversing  in  a  low  voice 
with  the  brothers  Gondi.  The  Marechal  de  Vieilleville  and 
Monsieur  de  Saint-Andre,  Keeper  of  the  Seals,  were  dis- 
cussing in  whispers  the  imminent  danger  of  the  Guises, 

The  Due  de  Guise  crossed  the  hall,  glancing  hastily  about 
him,  and  bowed  to  the  Due  d'Orleans,  whom  he  recognized. 

"Monseigneur,"  said  he,  "this  may  give  you  a  lesson  in 
the  knowledge  of  men.  The  Catholic  nobility  of  the  kingdom 
have  crowded  round  a  heretic  prince,  believing  that  the  States 
assembled  will  place  the  Eegency  in  the  hands  of  the  heir 
to  the  traitor  who  so  long  kept  your  illustrious  grandfather  a 
prisoner." 

And  after  this  speech,  which  was  calculated  to  make  a  deep 
impression  on  the  prince's  mind,  he  went  into  the  bedroom 
where  the  young  King  was  lying,  not  so  much  asleep  as 
heavily  drowsy.  As  a  rule,  the  Due  de  Guise  had  the  art 
of  overcoming,  by  his  affable  expression,  the  sinister  appear- 
ance of  his  scarred  features;  but  at  this  moment  he  could 
not  force  a  smile,  seeing  the  instrument  of  power  quite 
broken.  The  Cardinal,  whose  civic  courage  was  equal  to  his 
brother's  military  valor,  came  forward  a  step  or  two  to  meet 
the  Lieutenant-General. 

'Tlobertet  believes  that  little  Pinard  has  been  bought  over 
by  the  Queen-mother,"  he  said  in  his  ear,  as  he  led  him  back 
into  the  hall.  "He  has  been  made  use  of  to  work  on  the 
members  of  the  Assembly." 

"Bah!  what  matters  our  being  betrayed  by  a  secretary, 
when  there  is  treason  everywhere?"  cried  the  Duke.  "The 
town  is  for  the  Reformers,  and  we  are  on  the  eve  of  a  revolt. 
Yes!  the  Ouepins  are  malcontents,"  he  added,  giving  the 
people  of  Orleans  their  common  nickname,  "and  if  Par6  can- 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  177 

not  save  the  King,  we  shall  see  a  desperate  outbreak.  Before 
long  we  shall  have  to  lay  siege  to  Orleans,  which  is  a  vermin's 
nest  of  Huguenots." 

"In  the  last  minute,"  said  the  Cardinal,  "I  have  been 
watching  that  Italian  woman,  who  sits  there  without  a  spark 
of  feeling.  She  is  waiting  for  her  son's  death,  God  forgive 
her! — I  wonder  whether  it  would  not  be  well  to  arrest  her 
and  the  King  of  Navarre  too." 

"It  is  more  than  enough  to  have  the  Prince  de  Conde  in 
prison,"  replied  the  Duke. 

The  sound  of  a  horse  ridden  at  top-speed  came  up  from  the 
gate.  The  two  Princes  went  to  the  window,  and  by  the  light 
of  the  gatekeeper's  torch  and  of  the  cresset  that  was  always 
burning  under  the  gateway,  the  Duke  recognized  in  the 
rider's  hat  the  famous  cross  of  Lorraine,  which  the  Cardinal 
had  made  the  badge  of  their  partisans.  He  sent  one  of  the 
men-at-arms,  who  stood  in  the  ante-room,  to  say  that  the 
newcomer  was  to  be  admitted ;  and  he  went  to  the  head  of  the 
stairs  to  meet  him,  followed  by  his  brother. 

"What  is  the  news,  my  dear  Simeuse?"  asked  the  Duke, 
with  the  charming  manner  he  always  had  for  a  soldier,  as 
he  recognized  the  Commandant  of  Gien. 

"The  Connetable  is  entering  Pithiviers;  he  left  ficouen 
with  fifteen  hundred  horse  and  a  hundred  gentlemen " 

"Have  they  any  following  ?"  said  the  Duke. 

"Yes,  monseigneur,"  replied  Simeuse.  "There  are  two 
thousand  six  hundred  of  them  in  all.  Some  say  that  Thore 
is  behind  with  a  troop  of  infantry.  If  Montmorency  amuses 
himself  with  waiting  for  his  son,  you  have  time  before  you 
to  undo  him." 

"And  is  that  all  you  know  ?  Are  his  motives  for  this  rush 
to  arms  commonly  reported?" 

"Anne  speaks  as  little  as  he  writes;  do  you  go  and  meet 
him,  brother,  while  I  will  greet  him  here  with  his  nephew's 
head,"  said  the  Cardinal,  ordering  an  attendant  to  fetch 
Robertet. 

"Vieilleville,"  cried  the  Duke  to  the  Marshal,  who  came 


178  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

in,  "the  Connetable  de  Montmorency  has  dared  to  take  np 
arms.  If  I  go  out  to  meet  him,  will  you  be  responsible  for 
keeping  order  in  the  town  ?" 

"The  instant  you  are  out  of  it,  the  townsfolk  will  rise ;  and 
who  can  foresee  the  issue  of  a  fray  between  horsemen  and 
citizens  in  such  narrow  streets  ?"  replied  the  Marshal. 

"My  Lord !"  said  Eobertet,  flying  up  the  stairs,  "the  Chan- 
cellor is  at  the  gates,  and  insists  on  coming  in;  are  we  to  ad- 
mit him  ?" 

*^es,  admit  him,"  said  the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine.  "The 
Constable  and  the  Chancellor  together  would  be  too  danger- 
ous ;  we  must  keep  them  apart.  We  were  finely  tricked  by  the 
Queen-mother  when  we  elected  I'Hopital  to  that  office." 

Eobertet  nodded  to  a  captain  who  awaited  the  reply  at  the 
foot  of  the  stairs,  and  returned  quickly  to  take  the  Cardinal's 
orders, 

"My  Lord,"  said  he,  making  a  last  effort,  "I  take  the 
liberty  of  representing  to  you  that  the  sentence  requires  the 
approval  of  the  King  in  Council.  If  you  violate  the  law  for 
a  Prince  of  the  Blood,  it  will  not  be  respected  in  favor  of  a 
Cardinal  or  of  a  Due  de  Guise." 

"Pinard  has  disturbed  your  mind,  Eobertet,"  said  the  Car- 
dinal sternly.  "Do  you  not  know  that  the  King  signed  the 
warrant  on  the  day  when  he  went  out,  leaving  it  to  us  to 
carry  it  out  ?" 

"Though  you  are  almost  requiring  my  head  of  me  when 
you  give  me  this  duty — ^which,  however,  will  be  that  of  the 
town-provost — I  obey,  my  Lord." 

The  Grand  Master  heard  the  debate  without  wincing; 
but  he  took  his  brother  by  the  arm,  and  led  him  to  a  comer 
of  the  hall. 

•  "Of  course,"  said  he,  "the  direct  heirs  of  Charlemagne 
have  the  right  to  take  back  the  crown  which  was  snatched 
from  their  family  by  Hugues  Capet;  but — can  they?  The 
pear  is  not  ripe. — Our  nephew  is  dying,  and  all  the  Court  is 
gone  over  to  the  King  of  Navarre." 

"The  King's  heart  failed  him;  but  for  that,  the  Beamais 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  179 

would  have  been  stabbed,"  replied  the  Cardinal,  "and  we 
could  easily  have  disposed  of  the  children." 

*^e  are  in  a  bad  position  here,"  said  the  Duke.  "The 
revolt  in  the  town  will  be  supported  by  the  States-General. 
L'Hopital,  whom  we  have  befriended  so  well,  and  whose  ele- 
vation Queen  Catherine  opposed,  is  now  our  foe,  and  we  need 
the  law  on  our  side.  The  Queen-mother  has  too  many  ad- 
herents now  to  allow  of  our  sending  her  away. — And  besides, 
there  are  three  more  boys !" 

"She  is  no  longer  a  mother;  she  is  nothing  but  a  queen," 
said  the  Cardinal.  "In  my  opinion,  this  is  the  very  moment 
to  be  rid  of  her.  Energy,  and  again  energy !  that  is  what  I 
prescribe." 

Having  said  this,  the  Cardinal  went  back  into  the  King's 
room,  and  the  Duke  followed  him.  The  prelate  went  straight 
up  to  Catherine. 

"The  papers  found  on  La  Sagne,  the  Prince  de  Conde's 
secretary,  have  been  communicated  to  you,"  said  he.  "You 
know  that  the  Bourbons  mean  to  dethrone  your  children  ?*■ 

"I  know  it  all,"  said  the  Queen. 

*^ell,  then,  will  you  not  have  the  King  of  Navarre  ar- 
rested?" 

"There  is  a  Lieutenant-General  of  the  kingdom,"  replied 
she. 

At  this  moment  Francis  complained  of  the  most  violent 
pain  in  his  ear,  and  began  to  moan  lamentably.  The  phy- 
sician left  the  fireplace,  where  he  was  warming  himself,  and 
came  to  examine  the  patient's  head. 

"Well,  monsieur?"  said  the  Grand  Master,  addressing  him. 

"I  dare  not  apply  a  compress  to  draw  the  evil  humors. 
Master  Ambroise  has  undertaken  to  save  his  Majesty  by  an 
operation,  and  I  should  annoy  him  by  doing  so." 

"Put  it  off  till  to-morrow,"  said  Catherine  calmly,  "and  be 
present,  all  of  you  medical  men ;  for  you  know  what  calum- 
nies the  death  of  a  prince  gives  ground  for." 

She  kissed  her  son's  hands  and  withdrew. 

"How  coolly  that  audacious  trader's  daughter  can  speak  of 


180  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

the  Dauphin's  death,  poisoned  as  he  was  by  Montccueuli, 
a  Florentine  of  her  suite !"  cried  Mary  Stuart. 

"Marie,"  said  the  little  King,  "my  grandfather  never  cast 
a  suspicion  on  her  innocence." 

"Cannot  we  hinder  that  woman  from  coming  here  to- 
morrow ?"  said  the  Queen  in  an  undertone  to  her  two  uncles. 

*^Vhat  would  become  of  us  if  the  King  should  die?" 
replied  the  Cardinal.  "Catherine  would  hurl  us  all  into  his 
grave." 

And  so  that  night  the  question  stood  plainly  stated  between 
Catherine  de'  Medici  and  the  House  of  Lorraine.  The  ar- 
rival of  the  Chancellor  and  the  Connetable  de  Montmorency 
pointed  to  rebellion,  and  the  dawn  of  the  morrow  would 
prove  decisive. 

On  the  following  day  the  Queen-mother  was  the  first  to 
appear.  She  found  no  one  in  her  son's  room  but  Mary  Stuart, 
pale  and  fatigued  from  having  passed  the  night  in  prayer  by 
the  bedside.  The  Duchesse  de  Guise  had  kept  the  Queen 
company,  and  the  maids  of  honor  had  relieved  each  other. 
The  young  King  was  asleep. 

Neither  the  Duke  nor  the  Cardinal  had  yet  appeared.  The 
prelate,  more  daring  than  the  soldier,  had  spent  this  last 
night,  it  is  said,  in  vehement  argument,  without  being  able 
to  induce  the  Duke  to  proclaim  himself  King.  With  the 
States-General  sitting  in  the  town,  and  the  prospect  of  a 
battle  to  be  fought  with  the  Constable,  the  "Balafre"  did 
not  think  the  opportunity  favorable;  he  refused  to  arrest  the 
Queen-mother,  the  Chancellor,  Cardinal  de  Toumon,  the 
Gondis,  Euggieri,  and  Birague,  in  face  of  the  revolt  that 
would  inevitably  result  from  such  violent  measures.  He  made 
his  brother's  schemes  dependent  on  the  life  of  Francis  II. 

Perfect  silence  reigned  in  the  King's  bedchamber.  Cath- 
erine, attended  by  Madame  de  Fieschi,  came  to  the  bedside 
and  gazed  at  her  son  with  an  admirable  assumption  of  grief. 
She  held  her  handkerchief  to  her  eyes,  and  retreated  to  the 
window,  where  Madame  de  Fieschi  brought  her  a  chair. 
From  thence  she  could  look  down  into  the  courtyard. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  l8l 

It  had  been  agreed  between  Catherine  and  Cardinal  de 
Toumon  that  if  Montmorency  got  safely  into  the  town,  he, 
the  Cardinal,  would  come  to  her,  accompanied  by  the  two 
Gondis;  in  case  of  disaster,  he  was  to  come  alone.  At  nine 
in  the  morning  the  two  Princes  of  Lorraine,  accompanied  by 
their  suite,  who  remained  in  the  hall,  came  to  the  King's 
room.  The  captain  on  duty  had  informed  them  that  Am- 
broise  Pare  had  but  just  arrived  with  Chapelain  and  three 
other  physicians,  prompted  by  Catherine,  and  all  hating  Am- 
broise. 

In  a  few  minutes  the  great  hall  of  the  Bailliage  presented 
precisely  the  same  appearance  as  the  guardroom  at  Blois  on 
the  day  when  the  Due  de  Guise  was  appointed  Lieutenant- 
General  of  the  kingdom,  and  when*  Christophe  was  tortured ; 
with  only  this  difference,  that  then  love  and  glee  reigned  in 
the  royal  rooms,  and  that  the  Guises  were  triumphant; 
whereas  now  death  and  grief  prevailed,  and  the  Princes  of 
Lorraine  felt  the  power  slipping  from  their  grasp. 

The  maids  of  honor  of  the  two  Queens  were  grouped  on 
opposite  sides  of  the  great  fireplace,  where  an  immense  fire 
was  blading.    The  room  was  full  of  courtiers. 

The  news,  repeated  no  one  knows  by  whom,  of  a  bold  plan 
of  Ambroise  Pare's  for  saving  the  King's  life,  brought  in 
every  gentleman  who  had  any  right  to  appear  at  Court.  The 
outer  steps  of  the  house  and  the  courtyard  were  thronged 
with  anxious  groups.  The  scaffold  erected  for  the  Prince, 
opposite  the  Convent  of  the  Eecollets,  astonished  all  the 
nobles.  People  spoke  in  whispers,  and  here,  as  at  Blois,  the 
conversation  was  a  medley  of  serious  and  frivolous  subjects, 
of  grave  and  trivial  talk.  They  were  beginning  to  feel  used 
to  turmoils,  to  sudden  rebellion,  to  a  rush  to  arms,  to  revolts, 
to  the  great  and  sudden  events  which  marked  the  long  period 
during  which  the  House  of  Valois  was  dying  out,  in  spite  of 
Queen  Catherine's  efforts.  Deep  silence  was  kept  for  some 
distance  outside  the  bedroom  door,  where  two  men-at-arms 
were  on  guard,  with  two  pages,  and  the  captain  of  the  Scotch 
company. 


1^  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE    MEDIGI 

Antoine  de  Bourbon,  a  prisoner  in  his  lodgings,  finding 
himself  neglected,  understood  the  hopes  of  the  courtiers;  he 
was  overwhelmed  at  hearing  of  the  preparations  made  during 
the  night  for  his  brother's  execution. 

In  front  of  the  hall  fireplace  stood  one  of  the  finest  and 
grandest  figures  of  his  time,  the  Chancellor  de  I'Hopital, 
in  his  crimson  robes  bordered  with  ermine,  and  wearing  his 
square  cap,  in  right  of  his  office.  This  brave  man,  regarding 
his  benefactors  as  the  leaders  of  a  rebellion,  had  espoused  the 
cause  of  his  king,  as  represented  by  the  Queen-mother;  and 
at  the  risk  of  his  head  he  had  gone  to  fieouen  to  consult  the 
Connetable  de  Montmorency.  No  one  dared  to  disturb  the 
meditations  in  which  he  was  plunged.  Eobertet,  the  Secre- 
tary of  State,  two  marshals  of  France,  Vieilleville  and  Saint- 
Andre,  and  the  Keeper  of  the  Seals,  formed  a  group  in  front 
of  the  Chancellor. 

The  men  of  the  Court  were  not  actually  laughing,  but 
their  tone  was  sprightly,  especially  among  those  who  were 
disaffected  to  the  Guises. 

The  Cardinal  had  at  last  secured  Stuart,  the  Scotchman 
who  had  murdered  President  Minard,  and  was  arranging 
for  his  trial  at  Tours.  He  had  also  confined  in  the  chateaux 
of  Blois  and  of  Tours  a  considerable  number  of  gentlemen 
who  had  seemed  compromised,  to  inspire  a  certain  degree 
of  terror  in  the  nobles ;  they,  however,  were  not  terrified,  but 
saw  in  the  Reformation  a  fulcrum  for  the  love  of  resistance 
they  derived  from  a  feeling  of  their  inborn  equality  with 
the  King.  Now,  the  prisoners  at  Blois  had  contrived  to  es- 
cape, and,  ,by  a  singular  fatality,  those  who  had  been  shut  up 
at  Tours  had  Just  followed  their  example. 
'  "Madame,"  said  the  Cardinal  de  Chatillon  to  Madame  de 
Fieschi,  "if  any  one  takes  an  interest  in  the  prisoners  from 
',Tours,  they  are  in  the  greatest  danger." 

On  hearing  this  speech,  the  Chancellor  looked  round  at  the 
group  of  the  elder  Queen's  maids  of  honor. 

"Yes,  for  young  Desvaux,  the  Prince  de  Conde's  equerry, 
who  was  imprisoned  at  Tours,  added  a  bitter  jest  to  his  escape. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  183 

He  is  said  to  have  written  a  note  to  Messieurs  de  Guise  to  this 
e£Eeet : 

"  'We  have  heard  of  the  escape  of  your  prisoners  at  Blois ; 
it  has  grieved  us  so  much,  that  Tve  are  about  to  run  alter 
them;  we  will  bring  them  back  to  you  as  soon  as  we  have 
arrested  them.' " 

Though  he  relished  this  pleasantry,  the  Chancellor  looked 
sternly  at  Monsieur  de  Chatillon. 

At  this  instant  louder  voices  were  heard  in  the  King's 
bedchamber.  The  two  marshals,  with  Robertet  and  the  Chan- 
cellor, went  forward,  for  it  was  not  merely  a  question  of  life 
and  death  to  the  King;  everybody  was  in  the  secret  of  the 
danger  to  the  Chancellor,  to  Catherine,  and  to  her  adherents. 
The  silence  that  ensued  was  absolute. 

Ambroise  had  examined  the  King;  the  moment  seemed 
favorable  for  the  operation ;  if  it  were  not  performed,  he  might 
die  at  any  moment.  As  soon  as  the  brothers  de  Guise  came  in, 
he  explained  to  them  the  causes  of  the  King's  sulEferings,  and 
demonstrated  that  in  such  extremities  trepanning  was  abso- 
lutely necessary.  He  only  awaited  the  decision  of  the  phy- 
sicians. 

"Pierce  my  son's  skull  as  if  it  were  a  board,  and  with  that 
horrible  instrument!"  cried  Catherine  de'  Medici.  "Maitre 
Ambroise,  I  will  not  permit  it." 

The  doctors  were  consulting,  but  Catherine  spoke  so  loud 
that,  as  she  intended,  her  words  were  heard  in  the  outer  room. 

"But,  madame,  if  that  is  the  only  hope  of  saving  him?" 
said  Mary  Stuart,  weeping. 

"Ambroise,"  said  Catherine,  "remember  that  you  answer 
for  the  King  with  your  head." 

"We  are  opposed  to  the  means  proposed  by  Maitre  Am- 
broise," said  the  three  physicians.  "The  King  may  be  saved 
by  injecting  a  remedy  into  the  ear  which  will  release  the 
humors  through  that  passage." 


184  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

The  Due  de  Guise,  who  was  studying  Catherine's  face,  sud- 
denly went  up  to  her,  and  led  her  into  the  window-bay, 

"You,  madame,"  said  he,  "wish  your  son  to  die;  you  are 
in  collusion  with  your  enemies,  and  that  since  we  came  from 
Blois.  This  morning  Councillor  Viole  told  your  furrier's 
son  that  the  Prince  de  Conde  was  to  be  beheaded.  That  young 
man,  who,  under  torture,  had  denied  all  knowledge  of  the 
Prince  de  Conde,  gave  him  a  farewell  greeting  as  he  passed 
the  window  of  the  lad's  prison.  You  looked  on  at  your  hap- 
less accomplice's  sufferings  with  royal  indifference.  Now,  you 
are  opposed  to  your  eldest  son's  life  being  saved.  You  will 
force  us  to  believe  that  the  death  of  the  Dauphin,  which 
placed  the  crown  on  the  head  of  the  late  King,  was  not 
natural,  but  that  Montecuculi  was  your " 

"Monsieur  le  Chancelier!"  Catherine  called  out,  and  at 
this  signal  Madame  de  Fieschi  threw  open  the  double  doors 
of  the  bedchamber. 

The  persons  assembled  in  the  hall  could  thus  see  the  whole 
scene  in  the  King's  room:  the  little  King,  deadly  pale,  his 
features  sunk,  Ms  eyes  dim,  but  repeating  the  word  "Marie," 
while  he  held  the  hand  of  the  young  Queen,  who  was  weeping ; 
the  Duehesse  de  Guise  standing,  terrified  by  Catherine's  au- 
dacity; the  two  Princes  of  Lorraine,  not  less  anxious,  but 
keeping  close  to  the  Queen-mother,  and  resolved  to  have  her 
arrested  by  Maille-Breze ;  and  finally,  the  great  surgeon  Am- 
broise  Pare,  with  the  King's  physician.  He  stood  holding 
his  instruments,  but  not  daring  to  perform  the  operation, 
for  which  perfect  quiet  was  as  necessary  as  the  approbation 
of  the  medical  authorities. 

"Monsieur  le  Chancelier,"  said  Catherine,  "Messieurs  de 
Guise  wish  to  authorize  a  strange  operation  on  the  King's 
person.  Ambroise  proposes  to  perforate  his  head.  I,  as  his 
mother,  and  one  of  the  commission  of  Regency,  protest 
against  what  seems  to  me  to  be  high  treason.  The  three 
physicians  are  in  favor  of  an  injection  which,  to  me,  seems 
quite  as  efficacious  and  less  dangerous  than  the  cruel  process 
recommended  by  Ambroise." 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MBDIGI  185 

At  these  words  there  was  a  dull  murmur  in  reply.  The 
Cardinal  admitted  the  Chancellor,  and  then  shut  the  bedroom 
doors. 

"But  I  am  Lieutenant-General  of  the  realm,"  said  the  Due 
de  Guise,  "and  you  must  understand.  Monsieur  le  Chancelier, 
that  Ambroise,  surgeon  to  his  Majesty,  answers  for  the  King's 
life." 

"Well,  since  this  is  the  state  of  affairs,"  said  the  great 
Ambroise  Pare,  "I  know  what  to  be  doing." 

He  put  out  his  arm  over  the  bed. 

"This  bed  and  the  King  are  mine,"  said  he.  "I  constitute 
myself  the  sole  master,  and  singly  responsible;  I  know  the 
duties  of  my  office,  and  I  will  operate  on  the  King  without 
the  physicians'  sanction." 

"Save  him!"  cried  the  Cardinal,  "and  you  shall  be  the 
richest  man  in  France." 

"Only  go  on !"  said  Mary  Stuart,  pressing  Fare's  hand. 

"I  cannot  interfere,"  said  the  Chancellor,  'Haut  I  shdfll 
record  the  Queen-mother's  protest." 

"Eobertet,"  the  Due  de  Guise  called  out. 

Robertet  came  in,  and  the  Duke  pointed  to  the  Chancellor. 

"You  are  Chancellor  of  France,"  he  said,  "in  the  place  of 
this  felon.  Monsieur  de  Maille,  take  Monsieur  de  I'Hopital 
to  prison  with  the  Prince  de  Conde. — As  to  you,  madame," 
and  he  turned  to  Catherine,  "your  protest  will  not  be  recog- 
nized, and  you  would  do  well  to  remember  that  such  actions 
need  the  support  of  adequate  force.  I  am  acting  as  a  faithful 
and  loyal  subject  of  King  Francis  II.,  my  sovereign. — Pro- 
ceed, Ambroise,"  he  said  to  the  surgeon. 

"Monsieur  de  Guise,"  said  I'Hopital,  "if  you  use  any  vio- 
lence, either  on  the  person  of  the  King  or  on  that  of  his 
Chancellor,  remember  that  in  the  hall  without  there  is  enough 
French  nobility  to  arrest  all  traitors." 

"Gentlemen,  gentlemen,"  said  the  surgeon,  "if  you  prolong 
this  debate,  you  may  as  well  shout  'Vive  Charles  IX.,'  for 
King  Francis  is  dying." 

Catherine  stood  unmoved,  looking  out  of  window. 


186  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

"Well,  then,  we  will  use  force  to  remain  masters  in  the 
King's  bedroom,"  said  the  Cardinal,  trying  to  keep  the  door; 
but  he  was  startled  and  horrified,  for  the  great  hall  was  quite 
deserted.  The  Court,  sure  that  the  King  was  dying,  had 
gone  back  to  Antoine  of  Navarre. 

"Come ;  do  it,  do  it,"  cried  Mary  Stuart  to  Ambroise. — "I 
and  you.  Duchess,"  she  said  to  Madame  de  Guise,  "will  pro- 
tect you."  \ 

"Nay,  madame,"  said  Pare,  "my  zeal  carried  me  too  far;' 
the  doctors,  with  the  exception  of  my  friend  Chapelain,  are 
in  favor  of  the  injection;  I  must  yield  to  them.  If  I  were 
physician  and  surgeon-in-chief,  he  could  be  saved! — Give  it 
me,"  he  said,  taking  a  small  syringe  from  the  hand  of  the 
chief  physician,  and  filling  it. 

"Good  God  !"  cried  Mary  Stuart ;  "I  command  you " 

"Alas !  madame,"  replied  Pare,  "I  am  subordinate  to  these 
gentlemen." 

The  young  Queen  and  the  Duchesse  de  Guise  stood  between 
the  surgeon  and  the  doctors  and  the  other  persons  present. 
The  chief  physician  held  the  King's  head,  and  Ambroise 
made  the  injection  into  the  ear.  The  two  Princes  of  Lor- 
raine were  watchful;  Kobertet  and  Monsieur  de  Maille  stood 
motionless.  At  a  sign  from  Catherine,  Madame  de  Fieschi 
left  the  room  unnoticed.  At  the  same  instant  I'Hopital  boldly 
threw  open  the  door  of  the  King's  bedroom. 

"I  have  arrived  in  the  nick  of  time,"  exclaimed  a  man, 
whose  hasty  steps  rang  through  the  hall,  and  who,  in  another 
minute,  was  at  the  door  of  the  King's  room.  "What,  gentle- 
men !  You  thought  to  cut  off  my  fine  nephew,  the  Prince  de 
Condi's  head? — You  have  roused  the  lion  from  his  lair,  and 
here  he  is !"  added  the  Connetable  de  Montmorency. — "Am- 
broise, you  are  not  to  stir  up  my  King's  brains  with  your 
instruments !  The  Kings  of  France  do  not  allow  themselves 
to  be  knocked  about  in  that  way  unless  by  their  enemies'  sword 
in  fair  fight!  The  first  Prince  of  the  Blood,  Antoine  de 
Bourbon,  the  Prince  de  Conde,  the  Queen-mother,  and  the 
Chancellor  are  all  opposed  to  the  operation." 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  187 

To  Catherine's  great  satisfaction,  the  King  of  Navarre 
and  the  Prince  de  Conde  both  made  their  appearance. 

"What  is  the  meaning  of  this  ?"  said  the  Due  de  Guise,  lay- 
ing his  hand  on  his  poniard. 

"As  Lord  High  Constable,  I  have  dismissed  all  the  sentinels 
from  their  posts.  Blood  and  thunder!  we  are  not  in  an 
enemy's  country,  I  suppose.  The  King  our  Master  is  sur- 
rounded by  his  subjects,  and  the  States-General  of  the  realm 
may  deliberate  in  perfect  liberty.  I  have  just  come  from  the^^ 
Assembly,  gentlemen;  I  laid  before  it  the  protest  of  my 
nephew  de  Conde,  who  has  been  rescued  by  three  hundred 
gentlemen.  You  meant  to  let  the  royal  blood,  and  to  deci- 
mate the  nobility  of  France.  Henceforth  I  shall  not  trust 
anything  you  propose.  Messieurs  de  Lorraine.  And  if  you 
give  the  order  for  the  King's  head  to  be  opened,  by  this 
sword,  which  saved  France  from  Charles  V.,  I  say  it  shall 
not  be  done !" 

"All  the  more  so,"  said  Ambroise  Pare,  'Tjecause  it  is  too 
late,  suffusion  has  begun." 

'TTour  reign  is  over,  gentlemen,"  said  Catherine  to  the  two 
Guises,  seeing  from  Fare's  manner  that  there  was  now  no 
hope. 

"You,  madame,  have  killed  your  son !"  said  Mary  Stuart, 
springing  like  a  lioness  from  the  bed  to  the  window,  and  seiz- 
ing the  Italian  Queen  by  the  arm  with  a  vehement  clutch. 

"My  dear,"  replied  Catherine  de'  Medici,  with  a  keen,  cold 
look  that  expressed  the  hatred  she  had  suppressed  for  six 
months  past,  "you,  to  whose  violent  passion  this  death  is' 
due,  will  now  go  to  reign  over  your  own  Scotland — and  you 
will  go  to-morrow.  I  am  now  Eegent  in  fact  as  well  as  in. 
name." 

The  three  physicians  had  made  a  sign  to  the  Queen-mother. 

"Gentlemen,"  she  went  on,  addressing  the  Guises,  "it  is 
an  understood  thing  between  Monsieur  de  Bourbon — whom  I 
hereby  appoint  Lieutenant-General  of  the  kingdom — and  my- 
self that  the  conduct  of  affairs  is  our  business. — Come,  Mon- 
sieur le  Chancelier." 


188  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

"The  King  is  dead!"  said  the  Grand  Master,  obliged  to 
carry  out  the  functions  of  his  office. 

"God  save  King  Charles  IX. !"  cried  the  gentleman  who 
had  come  with  the  King  of  Navarre,  the  Prince  de  Conde, 
and  the  Constable. 

The  ceremonies  performed  when  a  King  of  France  dies 
were  carried  out  in  solitude.  When  the  king-at-arms  called 
out  three  times  in  the  great  hall,  "The  King  is  dead !"  after 
the  official  announcement  by  the  Due  de  Guise,  there  were  but 
a  few  persons  present  to  answer — "God  save  the  King !" 

The  Queen-mother,  to  whom  the  Countess  Fieschi  brought 
the  Due  d'Orleans,  now  Charles  IX.,  left  the  room  leading 
the  boy  by  the  hand,  and  followed  by  the  whole  Court.  Only 
the  two  Guises,  the  Duchesse  de  Guise,  Mary  Stuart,  and 
Dayelle  remained  in  the  room  where  Francis  II.  had  breathed 
his  last,  with  two  guards  at  the  door,  the  Grand  Master's 
pages  and  the  Cardinal's,  and  their  two  private  secretaries. 

"Vive  la  France !"  shouted  some  of  the  Kef ormers,  a  first 
cry  of  opposition. 

Eobertet,  who  owed  everything  to  the  Duke  and  the  Car- 
dinal, terrified  by  their  schemes  and  their  abortive  attempts, 
secretly  attached  himself  to  the  Queen-mother,  whom  the 
Ambassadors  of  Spain,  England,  the  German  Empire,  and 
Poland  met  on  the  stairs,  at  their  head  Cardinal  Tournon, 
who  had  gone  to  call  them  after  looking  up  from  the  court- 
yard to  Catherine  de'  Medici  just  as  she  was  protesting 
against  Ambroise  Fare's  operation. 

'^ell,  the  sons  of  Louis  d'Outre-Mer,  the  descendants  of 
Charles  de  Lorraine,  have  proved  cravens,'*  said  the  Cardinal 
to  the  Duke. 

"They  would  have  been  packed  off  to  Lorraine,"  replied 
his  brother.  "I  declare  to  you,  Charles,"  he  went  on,  "if 
.the  crown  were  there  for  the  taking,  I  would  not  put  out  my 
hand  for  it.    That  will  be  my  son's  task." 

"Will  he  ever  have  the  army  and  the  Church  on  his  side 
as  you  have  ?" 

"He  will  have  something  better." 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  189 

"The  people/' 

"And  there  is  no  one  to  mourn  for  him  but  me — the  poor 
boy  who  loved  me  so  well!"  said  Mary  Stuart,  holding  the 
cold  hand  of  her  first  husband. 

"How  can  we  be  reconciled  to  the  Queen?"  said  the  Car- 
dinal. 

"Wait  till  she  quarrels  with  the  Huguenots,"  said  the 
Duchess. 

The  clashing  interests  of  the  House  of  Bourbon,  of  Cath- 
erine, of  the  Guises,  and  of  the  Eeformers  produced  such 
confusion  in  Orleans,  that  it  was  not  till  three  days  after  that 
the  King's  body,  quite  forgotten  where  it  lay,  was  placed  in 
a  coffin  by  obscure  serving  men,  and  carried  to  Saint-Denis 
in  a  covered  vehicle,  followed  only  by  the  Bishop  of  Senlis 
and  two  gentlemen.  When  this  dismal  little  procession  ar- 
rived at  the  town  of  Etampes,  a  follower  of  the  Chancellor  de 
I'Hopital  attached  to  the  hearse  this  bitter  inscription,  which 
history  has  recorded :  "Tanneguy  du  Chastel,  where  are  you  ? 
Yet  you  too  were  French !"  A  stinging  innuendo,  striking  at 
Catherine,  Mary  Stuart,  and  the  Guises.  For  what  French- 
man does  not  know  that  Tanneguy  du  Chastel  spent  thirty 
thousand  crowns  (a  million  of  francs  in  these  days)  on  the 
obsequies  of  Charles  VII.,  the  benefactor  of  his  family? 

As  soon  as  the  tolling  bells  announced  the  death  of  Francis 
II.,  and  the  Connetable  de  Montmorency  had  thrown  open 
the  gates  of  the  town,  Touriilon  went  up  to  his  hayloft  and 
made  his  way  to  a  hiding-place. 

"What,  can  he  be  dead?"  exclaimed  the  glover. 

On  hearing  the  voice,  a  man  rose  and  replied,  "Pret  a 
servir"  ("Ready  to  serve,"  or  "Ready,  aye  ready"),  the 
,watchword  of  the  Reformers  of  Calvin's  sect. 

This  man  was  Chaudieu,  to  whom  Touriilon  related  the 
events  of  the  last  week,  during  which  he  had  left  the  preacher 
alone  in  his  hiding-place,  with  a  twelve-ounce  loaf  for  his  sole 
sustenanca 


190  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

"Be  off  to  the  Prince  de  Conde,  brother,  ask  him  for  a  safe- 
conduct  for  me,  and  find  me  a  horse,"  cried  the  preacher.  "I 
must  set  out  this  moment." 

"Write  him  a  line  then,  that  I  may  be  admitted." 

"Here,"  said  Chaudieu,  after  writing  a  few  lines,  "ask  for 
a  pass  from  the  King  of  Navarre,  for  under  existing  circum- 
stances I  must  hasten  to  Geneva." 

Within  two  hours  all  was  ready,  and  the  zealous  minister 
was  on  his  way  to  Geneva,  escorted  by  one  of  the  King  of 
Navarre's  gentlemen,  whose  secretary  Chaudieu  was  supposed 
to  be,  and  who  was  the  bearer  of  instructions  to  the  Re- 
formed party  in  Dauphine. 

Chaudieu's  sudden  departure  was  at  once  permitted,  to 
further  the  interests  of  Queen  Catherine,  who,  to  gain  time, 
made  a  bold  suggestion  which  was  kept  a  profound  secret. 
This  startling  scheme  accounts  for  the  agreement  so  unex- 
pectedly arrived  at  between  the  Queen  and  the  leaders  of  the 
Protestant  party.  The  crafty  woman  had,  as  a  guarantee  of 
her  good  faith,  expressed  a  desire  to  heal  the  breach  between 
the  two  Churches  in  an  assembly  which  could  be  neither 
a  Synod,  nor  a  Council,  nor  a  Convocation,  for  which  indeed 
a  new  name  was  needed,  and,  above  all  else,  Calvin's  consent. 
It  may  be  said  in  passing,  that,  when  this  mystery  came  out, 
it  led  to  the  alliance  of  the  Guises  with  the  Connetable  de 
Montmorency  against  Catherine  and  the  King  of  Navarre — ■ 
a  strange  coalition,  known  to  history  as  the  Triumvirate, 
because  the  Marechal  de  Saint-Andre  was  the  third  person 
in  this  purely  Catholic  combination,  to  which  Catherine's 
strange  proposal  for  a  meeting  gave  rise.  The  Guises  were 
then  enabled  to  judge  very  shrewdly  of  Catherine's  policy; 
they  saw  that  the  Queen  cared  little  enough  for  this  assembly, 
and  only  wanted  to  temporize  with  her  allies  till  Charles  IX. 
should  be  of  age;  indeed,  they  deceived  Montmorency  by  mak- 
ing him  believe  in  a  collusion  between  Catherine  and  the 
Bourbons,  while  Catherine  was  taking  them  all  in.  The 
Queen,  it  wiU  be  seen,  had  in  a  short  time  made  great  strides. 

The  spirit  of  argument  and  discussion  which  was  then  in 


ABOUT  GATHERINE  DE'  MEDIGI  191 

the  air  was  particularly  favorable  to  tMs  scheme.  The 
Catholics  and  the  Huguenots  were  all  to  shine  in  turn  in 
this  tournament  of  words.  Indeed,  that  is  exactly  what  hap- 
pened. Is  it  not  extraordinary  that  historians  should  have 
mistaken  the  Queen's  shrewdest  craft  for  hesitancy?  Cath- 
erine never  went  more  directly  to  the  end  she  had  in  view 
than  when  she  seemed  to  have  turned  her  back  on  it.  So 
the  King  of  Navarre,  incapable  of  fathoming  Catherine's  mo- 
tives, despatched  Chaudieu  to  Calvin;  Chaudieu  having 
secretly  intended  to  watch  the  course  of  events  at  Orleans, 
where  he  ran,  every  hour,  the  risk  of  being  seized  and  hanged 
without  trial,  like  any  man  who  had  been  condemned  to  ban- 
ishment. 

At  the  rate  of  traveling  then  possible  Chaudieu  could  not 
reach  Geneva  before  the  month  of  February,  the  negotiations 
could  not  be  completed  till  March,  and  the  meeting  could  not 
be  called  till  the  beginning  of  May  1561.  Catherine  in- 
tended to  amuse  the  Court  meanwhile,  and  lull  party-feeling 
by  the  King's  coronation,  and  by  his  first  Bed  of  Justice  in 
the  Parlement  when  I'Hopital  and  de  Thou  passed  the  royal 
letter,  by  which  Charles  IX.  intrusted  the  Government  of 
the  kingdom  to  his  mother,  seconded  by  Antoine  de  Navarre 
as  Lieutenant-General  of  the  realm — the  weakest  prince  of 
his  time. 

Was  it  not  one  of  the  strangest  things  of  that  day  to  see 
a  whole  kingdom  in  suspense  for  the  Yea  or  Nay  of  a  French 
citizen,  risen  from  obscurity,  and  living  at  Geneva?  The 
Pope  of  Eome  held  in  check  by  the  Pope  of  Geneva?  The 
two  Princes  of  Lorraine,  once  so  powerful,  paralyzed  by  the 
brief  concord  between  the  first  Prince  of  the  Blood,  the 
Queen-mother,  and  Calvin?  Is  it  not  one  of  the  most  preg- 
nant lessons  that  history  has  preserved  to  kings,  a  lesson  that 
should  teach  them  to  judge  of  men,  to  give  genius  its  due 
without  any  hesitation,  and  to  seek  it  out,  as  Louis  XIV. 
did,  wherever  God  has  hidden  it  ? 

Calvin,  whose  real  name  was  not  Calvin,  but  Cauvin,  was 
the  son  of  a  cooper  at  Noyon,  in  Picardy.     Calvin's  birth- 


192  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

place  accounts  to  a  certain  degree  for  the  obstinacy  mingled 
with  eccentric  irritability  which  characterized  the  arbiter  of 
the  destinies  of  France  in  the  sixteenth  century.  No  one  is 
less  known  than  this  man,  who  was  the  maker  of  Geneva  and 
of  the  spirit  of  its  people.  Jean-Jacques  Eousseau,  who 
knew  little  of  history,  was  utterly  ignorant  of  this  man's 
influence  on  his  Republic. 

At  first,  indeed,  Calvin,  dwelling  in  one  of  the  humblest 
houses  in  the  upper  town,  near  the  Protestant  Church  of 
Saint-Pierre,  over  a  carpenter's  shop — one  point  of  resem- 
blance between  him  and  Robespierre — had  no  great  authority 
in  Geneva.  His  influence  was  for  a  long  time  checked  by 
the  hatred  of  the  Genevese. 

In  the  sixteenth  century  Geneva  could  boast  of  Farel,  one 
of  those  famous  citizens  who  have  remained  unknown  to  the 
world,  some  of  them  even  to  Geneva  itself.  In  the  year  1537, 
or  thereabouts,  this  Farel  attached  Calvin  to  Geneva  by 
pointing  out  to  him  that  it  might  become  the  stronghold  of 
a  reformation  more  thorough  than  that  of  Luther.  Farel  and 
Cauvin  looked  on  Lutheranism  as  an  incomplete  achieve- 
ment, ineffectual,  and  with  no  hold  on  France.  Geneva, 
lying  between  France  and  Italy,  speaking  the  French  tongue, 
was  admirably  placed  for  communicating  with  Germany, 
Italy,  and  France.  Calvin  adopted  Geneva  as  the  seat  of 
his  spiritual  fortunes,  and  made  it  the  citadel  of  his  dogmas. 
At  Farel's  request,  the  town  council  of  Geneva  authorized 
Calvin  to  lecture  on  theology  in  the  month  of  September 
1538.  Calvin  left  preaching  to  Farel,  his  first  disciple,  and 
patiently  devoted  himself  to  teaching  his  doctrine.  His 
authority,  which  in  later  years  of  his  life  was  para- 
mount, took  long  to  establish.  The  great  leader  met  with 
serious  difficulties;  he  was  even  banished  from  Geneva  for 
some  time  in  consequence  of  the  austerity  of  his  doctrines. 
There  was  a  party  of  very  good  folk  who  clung  to  the  old 
luxury  and  customs  of  their  fathers.  But,  as  is  always  the 
case,  these  worthy  people  dreaded  ridicule;  they  would  not 
admit  what  was  the  real  object  of  their  struggles,  and  the 
battle  was  fought  over  details  apart  from  the  real  question. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  193 

Calvin  insisted  on  leavened  bread  being  used  for  the  Sacra- 
ment, and  on  there  being  no  holy  days  but  Sunday.  These 
innovations  were  disapproved  of  at  Berne  and  at  Lausanne. 
The  Genevese  were  required  to  conform  to  the  ritual  of 
Switzerland.  Calvin  and  Farel  resisted;  their  political  ene- 
mies made  a  pretext  of  this  refractoriness  to  exile  them  from 
Geneva,  whence  they  were  banished  for  some  years.  At  a 
later  period  Calvin  came  back  in  triumph,  invited  by  his 
flock. 

Such  persecution  is  always  a  consecration  of  moral  power 
when  the  prophet  can  wait.  And  this  return  was  the  era  of 
this  Mahomet.  Executions  began,  and  Calvin  organized  his 
religious  Terror.  As  soon  as  this  commanding  spirit  reap- 
peared, he  was  admitted  to  the  citizenship  of  Geneva;  but 
after  fourteen  years'  residence  there,  he  was  not  yet  on  the 
Council.  At  the  time  when  Catherine  was  despatching  a  min- 
ister to  treat  with  him,  this  king  in  the  realm  of  thought  had 
no  title  but  that  of  Pastor  of  the  Church  of  Geneva.  Indeed, 
Calvin  never  had  more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  francs  a 
year  in  money,  fifteen  hundred-weight  of  corn  and  two  casks 
of  wine  for  his  whole  remuneration.  His  brother,  a  tailor, 
kept  a  shop  a  few  paces  away  from  the  Place  Saint-Pierre, 
in  a  street  where  one  of  Calvin's  printing-places  may  still  be 
seen. 

Such  disinterestedness,  which  in  Voltaire  and  Baker  was 
lacking,  but  which  is  conspicuous  in  the  life  of  Eabelais,  of 
Campanella,  of  Luther,  of  Vico,  of  Descartes,  of  Male- 
branche,  of  Spinoza,  of  Loyola,  of  Kant,  and  of  Jean-Jacques 
Eousseau,  surely  forms  a  noble  setting  for  these  sublime  and 
ardent  souls. 

Eobespierre's  life,  so  like  that  of  Calvin,  can  alone  per- 
haps enable  our  contemporaries  to  understand  Calvin's.  He 
.founding  his  power  on  a  similar  basis,  was  as  cruel  and  as 
'tyrannical  as  the  Arras  lawyer.  It  is  strange  too  that 
Picardy — Arras  and  Noyon — should  have  given  to  the  world 
these  two  great  instruments  of  reform*.  Those  who  examine 
into  the  motives  of  the  executions  ordered  by  Calvin  will  find. 


Id*  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

on  a  different  scale,  no  doubt,  all  of  1793  at  Geneva.  Calvin 
had  Jacques  Gruet  beheaded  "for  having  written  impious 
letters  and  worldly  verse,  and  labored  to  overthrow  Church 
ordinances."  Just  consider  this  sentence,  and  ask  yourself 
if  the  worst  despotism  can  show  in  its  annals  a  more  ab* 
'surdly  preposterous  indictment. 

Valentin  Gentilis,  condemned  to  death  for  involuntary 
heresy,  escaped  the  scaffold  only  by  making  more  humiliating 
amends  than  ever  were  inflicted  by  the  Catholic  Church. 
Seven  years  before  the  conference  presently  to  be  held  in 
Calvin's  house  on  the  Queen-mother's  proposals,  Michel  Ser- 
vet  (or  Servetus),  a  Frenchman,  passing  through  Geneva, 
was  put  in  prison,  tried,  condemned  on  Calvin's  testimony, 
and  burned  alive  for  having  attacked  the  mystery  of  the 
Trinity  in  a  work  which  had  not  been  either  composed  or 
printed  at  Geneva.  Compare  with  this  the  eloquent  defence 
of  Jean-Jacques  Kousseau,  whose  book,  attacking  the  Catholic 
religion,  written  in  France  and  published  in  Holland,  was 
indeed  burned  by  the  hand  of  the  executioner ;  but  the  writer, 
a  foreigner,  was  only  banished  from  the  kingdom,  where  he 
had  been  trying  to  strike  at  the  fundamental  truths  of  re- 
ligion and  government;  and  compare  the  conduct  of  the 
Parlement  with  that  of  the  Genevese  tyrant. 

Bolsee,  again,  was  brought  to  judgment  for  having  other 
ideas  than  Calvin  on  the  subject  of  predestination.  Weigh  all 
this,  and  say  whether  Fouquier-Tinville  did  anything  worse. 
Calvin's  fierce  religious  intolerance  was,  morally  speaking, 
more  intense,  more  implacable,  than  the  fierce  political  in- 
tolerance of  Eobespierre.  On  a  wider  stage  than  was  offered 
y  Geneva,  Calvin  would  have  shed  more  blood  than  the  terri- 
le  apostle  of  political  equality,  as  compared  with  Catholic 
equality. 

Three  centuries  earlier  a  monk,  also  a  son  of  Picardy,  had 
led  the  whole  of  Western  Europe  to  invade  the  East.  Peter 
the  Hermit,  Calvin,  and  Eobespierre,  sons  of  the  same  soil, 
at  intervals  of  three  centuries,  were,  in  a  political  sense,  the 
levers  of  Archimedes.  Each  in  turn  was  an  embodied  idea 
finding  its  fulcrum  in  the  interests  of  man. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  195 

Calvin  is,  beyond  doubt,  the — almost  unrecognized — maker 
of  that  dismal  town  of  Geneva,  where,  only  ten  years  since, 
a  man,  pointing  out  a  carriage  gate — the  first  in  the  town, 
for  till  then  there  had  only  been  house  doors  in  Geneva — said, 
"Through  that  gate  luxury  drove  into  Geneva."  Calvin, 
by  the  severity  of  his  sentences  and  the  austerity  of  his  doc- 
trine, introduced  the  hypocritical  feeling  that  has  been  well 
called  Puritanism  [the  nearest  English  equivalent  perhaps 
to  the  French  word  momerie'].  Good  conduct,  according  to 
the  momiers  or  puritans,  lay  in  renouncing  the  arts  and  the 
graces  of  life,  in  eating  well  but  without  luxury,  and  in 
silently  amassing  money  without  enjoying  it  otherwise  than 
as  Calvin  enjoyed  his  power — in  fancy. 

Calvin  clothed  the  citizens  in  the  same  gloomy  livery  as 
he  threw  over  life  in  general.  He  formed  in  the  Consistory 
a  perfect  Calvinist  inquisition,  exactly  like  the  revolutionary 
tribunal  instituted  by  Eobespierre.  The  Consistory  handed 
over  the  victims  to  be  condemned  by  the  Council,  which 
Calvin  ruled  through  the  Consistory  just  as  Robespierre  ruled 
the  Convention  through  the  Jacobin  Club.  Thus  an  eminent 
magistrate  of  Geneva  was  sentenced  to  two  months'  impris- 
onment, to  lose  his  office,  and  to  be  prohibited  from  ever 
filling  any  other,  because  he  led  a  dissolute  life  and  had 
made  friends  among  Calvin's  foes.  In  this  way  Calvin  was 
actually  a  legislator;  it  was  he  who  created  the  austere 
manners,  sober,  respectable,  hideously  dull,  but  quite  irre- 
proachable, which  have  remained  unchanged  in  Geneva  to  this 
day;  they  prevailed  there  indeed  before  the  English  habits 
were  formed  that  are  universally  known  as  Puritanism,  under 
the  influence  of  the  Cameronians,  the  followers  of  Cameron, 
a  Frenchman  who  trod  in  Calvin's  steps.  These  manners 
have  been  admirably  described  by  Walter  Scott. 

The  poverty  of  this  man,  an  absolute  sovereign,  who  treated 
aa  a  power  with  other  powers,  asking  for  their  treasure, 
demanding  armies,  and  filling  his  hanads  with  their  money 
for  the  poor,  proves  that  the  Idea,  regarded  as  the  sole  means 
of  dominion,  begets  political  misers,  men  whose  only  en- 


196  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDIGI 

joyment  is  intellectual,  and  who,  like  the  Jesuits,  love  power 
for  its  own  sake.  Pitt,  Luther,  Calvin,  and  Eobespierre,  all 
these  Harpagons  in  greed  of  dominion,  died  penniless.  His- 
tory has  preserved  the  inventory  made  in  Calvin's  rooms  after 
his  death,  and  evei7thing,  including  his  books,  was  valued 
at  fifty  crowns.  Luther's  possessions  amounted  to  as  much; 
indeed,  his  widow,  the  famous  Catherine  de  Bora,  was  obliged 
to  petition  for  a  pension  of  fifty  crowns  bestowed  on  her  by 
'^  German  Elector. 

Potemkin,  Mazarin,  and  Eichelieu,  men  of  thought  and 
action,  who  all  three  founded  or  prepared  the  foundations 
of  empires,  each  left  three  hundred  millions  of  francs;  but 
these  men  had  a  heart,  they  loved  women  and  the  arts,  they 
built  and  conquered;  while,  with  the  exception  of  Luther, 
whose  wife  was  the  Helen  of  this  Iliad,  none  of  the  others 
could  accuse  himself  of  ever  having  felt  his  heart  throb  for 
a  woman. 

This  brief  history  was  needed  to  explain  Calvin's  position 
at  Geneva. 

One  day  early  in  February  1561,  on  one  of  the  mild  even- 
ings which  occur  at  that  time  of  year  on  the  shores  of  Lake 
Leman,  two  men  on  horseback  arrived  at  Pr6-l';fiveque,  so 
called  from  the  ancient  residence  of  the  Bishop  of  Geneva, 
driven  out  thirty  years  before.  These  two  men,  acquainted, 
no  doubt,  with  the  law  of  Geneva  as  to  the  closing  of  the  gates, 
very  necessary  then,  and  absurd  enough  in  these  days,  rode 
towards  the  Porte  de  Eives;  but  they  suddenly  drew  rein  at 
the  sight  of  a  man  of  fifty,  walking  with  the  help  of  a 
woman-servant's  arm,  and  evidently  returning  to  the  town. 
This  personage,  rather  stout  in  figure,  walked  slowly  and 
with  difficulty,  dragging  one  foot  before  the  other  with  evi- 
dent pain,  and  wearing  broad,  laced  shoes  of  black  velvet. 

"It  is  he,"  said  Chaudieu's  companion,  who  dismounted, 
gave  his  bridle  to  the  preacher,  and  went  forward  open- 
armed  to  meet  the  master. 

The  man  on  foot,  who  was  in  fact  Jean  Calvin,  drew  back 
to  avoid  the  embrace,  and  east  the  severest  glance  at  his  dis- 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  197 

ciple.  At  the  age  of  fifty  Calvin  looked  like  a  man  of  seventy. 
Thick-set  and  fat,  he  seemed  all  the  shorter  because  frightful 
pain  from  the  stone  obliged  him  to  walk  much  bent.  These 
sufferings  were  complicated  with  attacks  of  the  worst  form 
of  gout.  Anybody  might  have  quaked  at  the  aspect  of  that 
face^  almost  as  broad  as  it  was  long,  and  bearing  no  more 
signs  of  good-nature,  in  spite  of  its  roundness,  than  that  of 
the  dreadful  King  Henry  VIII.,  whom  Calvin,  in  fact,  re- 
sembled. His  sufferings,  which  never  gave  him  a  reprieve, 
were  visible  in  two  deep  furrows  on  each  side  of  his  nose, 
following  the  line  of  his  moustache,  and  ending,  like  it,  in  a 
full  gray  beard. 

This  face,  though  red  and  inflamed  like  a  drunkard's, 
showed  patches  where  his  complexion  was  yellow;  still,  and 
in  spite  of  the  velvet  cap  that  covered  his  massive,  broad 
head,  it  was  possible  to  admire  a  large  and  nobly  formed 
forehead,  and  beneath  it  two  sparkling  brown  eyes,  which 
in  moments  of  wrath  could  flash  fire.  Whether  by  reason 
of  his  bulk,  or  because  his  neck  was  too  thick  and  short, 
or  as  a  consequence  of  late  hours  and  incessant  work,  Calvin's 
head  seemed  sunk  between  his  broad  shoulders,  which  com- 
pelled him  to  wear  a  quite  shallow,  pleated  ruff,  on  which 
his  face  rested  like  John  the  Baptist's  in  the  charger.  Be- 
tween his  moustache  and  his  beard  there  peeped,  like  a  rose, 
a  sweet  and  eloquent  mouth,  small,  and  fresh,  and  perfectly 
formed.  This  face  was  divided  by  a  square  nose  remarkable 
for  its  long  aquiline  outline,  resulting  in  high-lights  at  the 
tip,  significantly  in  harmony  with  the  prodigious  power  ex- 
pressed in  this  magnificent  head. 

Though  it  was  difficult  to  detect  in  these  features  any 
trace  of  the  constant  headaches  which  tormented  Calvin  in 
the  intervals  of  a  slow  fever  that  was  consuming  him,  pain, 
constantly  defied  by  study  and  a  strong  will,  gave  this  ap- 
parently florid  face  a  terrible  tinge,  attributable,  no  doubt, 
to  the  hue  of  the  layer  of  fat  due  to  the  sedentary  habits  of 
a  hard  worker.  It  bore  the  marks  of  the  perpetual  struggle 
of  a  sickly  temperament  against  one  of  the  strongest  wills 
-14 


198  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

known  in  the  history  of  mankind.  Even  the  lips,  though 
beautiful,  expressed  cruelty.  A  chaste  life,  indispensable 
to  vast  projects,  and  compulsory  in  such  conditions  of  sickly 
health,  had  set  its  stamp  on  the  face.  There  was  regret  in 
the  serenity  of  that  mighty  brow,  and  suffering  in  the  gaze 
of  the  eyes,  whose  calmness  was  a  terror. 

Calvin's  dress  gave  effect  to  his  head,  for  he  wore  the 
famous  black  cloth  gown,  belted  with  a  cloth  band  and  brass 
buckle,  which  was  adopted  as  the  costume  of  Calvinist  preach-; 
ers,  and  which,  having  nothing  to  attract  the  eye,  directed 
all  the  spectator's  attention  to  the  face. 

"I  am  in  too  great  pain  to  embrace  you,  Theodore,"  said 
Calvin  to  the  elegant  horseman. 

Theodore  de  Beze,  at  that  time  two-and-forty,  and,  by 
Calvin's  desire,  a  free  citizen  of  Geneva  for  two  years  past, 
was  the  most  striking  contrast  to  the  terrible  minister  to 
whom  he  had  given  his  allegiance.  Calvin,  like  all  men  of 
the  middle  class  who  have  risen  to  moral  supremacy,  like 
all  inventors  of  a  social  system,  was  consumed  with  jealousy. 
He  abhorred  his  disciples,  would  suffer  no  equal,  and  could 
not  endure  the  slightest  contradiction.  However,  between 
him  and  Theodore  de  Beze  the  difference  was  so  great;  this 
elegant  gentleman,  gifted  with  a  charming  appearance,  pol- 
ished, courteous,  and  accustomed  to  Court  life,  was,  in  his 
eyes,  so  unlike  all  his  fierce  Janissaries,  that  for  him  he  set 
aside  his  usual  impulses.  He  never  loved  him,  for  this 
crabbed  lawgiver  knew  absolutely  nothing  of  friendship;  but 
having  no  fear  of  finding  his  successor  in  him,  he  liked  to 
play  with  Theodore,  as  Eichelieu  at  a  later  time  played  with 
his  cat.  He  found  him  pliant  and  amusing.  When  he  saw 
that  de  Beze  succeeded  to  perfection  in  every  mission,  he  took 
delight  in  the  polished  tool  of  which  he  believed  himself  to 
be  the  soul  and  guide ;  so  true  is  it  that  even  those  men  who 
seem  most  surly  cannot  live  without  some  semblance  of  affec- 
tion. 

Theodore  was  Calvin's  spoilt  child.  The  great  Reformer 
never  scolded  him,   overlooked  his  irregularities,  his   love 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  199 

affairs,  his  handsome  dress,  and  his  choice  language.  Pos- 
sibly Calvin  was  well  content  to  show  that  the  Reformation 
could  hold  its  own  even  among  Court  circles.  Theodore  de 
Beze  wanted  to  introduce  a  taste  for  art,  letters,  and  poetry 
into  Geneva,  and  Calvin  would  listen  to  his  schemes  without 
knitting  his  grizzled  brows.  Thus  the  contrast  of  character 
and  person  was  as  complete  as  the  contrast  of  mind  in  these 
two  celebrated  men. 

Calvin  accepted  Chaudieu's  very  humble  bow,  and  replied 
by  slightly  bending  his  head.  Chaudieu  slipped  the  bridles 
of  both  horses  over  his  right  arm  and  followed  the  two  great 
Reformers,  keeping  on  the  right  of  Theodore  de  Beze,  who  was 
walking  on  Calvin's  right.  Calvin's  housekeeper  ran  for- 
ward to  prevent  the  gate  being  shut,  by  telling  the  captain  of 
the  Guard  that  the  Pastor  had  just  had  a  severe  attack  of 
pain. 

Theodore  de  Beze  was  a  native  of  the  Commune  of  Veze- 
lay,  the  first  to  demand  for  itself  corporate  government,  of 
which  the  curious  tale  has  been  told  by  one  of  the  Thierrys. 
Thus  the  spirit  of  citizenship  and  resistance  which  were  en- 
demic at  Vezelay  no  doubt  contributed  an  item  to  the  great 
rising  of  the  Reformers  in  the  person  of  this  man,  who  is 
certainly  a  most  singular  figure  in  the  history  of  heresy. 

"So  you  still  suffer  great  pain  ?"  said  Theodore  to  Calvin. 

"The  sufferings  of  the  damned,  a  Catholic  would  say,'* 
replied  the  Reformer,  with  the  bitterness  that  colored  his  least 
remarks.  "Ah !  I  am  going  fast,  iny  son,  and  what  will  be- 
come of  you  when  I  am  gone  ?" 

"We  will  fight  by  the  light  of  your  writings,"  said  Chau- 
dieu. 

Calvin  smiled;  his  purple  face  assumed  a  more  gracious 
expression,  and  he  looked  kindly  on  Chaudieu. 

"Well,  have  you  brought  me  any  news  ?"  he  asked.  "Have 
they  killed  a  great  many  of  us  ?"  he  added,  with  a  smile,  and 
a  sort  of  mocking  glee  sparkled  in  his  brown  eyes. 

"No,"  said  Chaudieu;  "peace  is  the  order  of  the  day." 

"So  much  the  worse,  so  much  the  worse !"  cried  Calvin. 


200  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

"Every  form  of  peace  would  be  a  misfortune  if  it  were  not 
always,  in  fact,  a  snare.  Our  strength  lies  in  persecution. 
Where  should  we  be  if  the  Church  took  up  the  Kef ormation  ?" 

"Indeed,"  said  Theodore,  "that  is  what  the  Queen-mother 
seems  inclined  to  do." 

"She  is  quite  capable  of  it,"  said  Calvin.  "I  am  studying 
that  woman." 

"From  hence  ?"  cried  Chaudieu. 

"Does  distance  exist  for  the  spirit?"  said  Calvin  severely, 
regarding  the  interruption  as  irreverent.  "Catherine  longs 
for  power,  and  women  who  aim  at  that  lose  all  sense  of  honor 
and  faith. — ^What  is  in  the  wind?" 

"Well,  she  suggests  a  sort  of  Council,"  said  Theodore  de 
Beze. 

"Near  Paris  ?"  asked  Calvin  roughly. 

"Yes." 

"Ah !  that  is  well !"  said  Calvin. 

"And  we  are  to  try  to  come  to  an  understanding,  and  draw 
up  a  public  Act  to  consolidate  the  two  Churches." 

"Ah !  if  only  she  had  courage  enough  to  separate  the  French 
Church  from  the  Court  of  Home,  and  to  create  a  patriarch 
in  France,  as  in  the  Greek  Church !"  cried  the  Keformer, 
whose  eyes  glistened  at  this  idea,  which  would  place  him  on  a 
throne.  "But,  my  son,  can  a  Pope's  niece  be  truthful  ?  She 
only  wants  to  gain  time." 

"And  do  not  we  need  time  to  recover  from  our  check  at 
Amboise,  and  to  organize  some  formidable  resistance  in  vari- 
ous parts  of  the  kingdom  ?" 

"She  has  sent  away  the  Queen  of  Scotland,"  said  Chaudieu. 

"That  is  one  less,  then,"  said  Calvin,  as  they  passed  through 
thp  Porte  de  Eives.  "Elizabeth  of  England  will  keep  her 
busy.  Two  neighboring  queens  will  soon  be  fighting;  one  h 
handsome,  and  the  other  ugly  enough — a  first  cause  of  irrita- 
tion ;  and  then  there  is  the  question  of  legitimacy " 

He  rubbed  his  hands,  and  his  glee  had  such  a  ferocious 
taint  that  de  Beze  shuddered,  for  he  too  saw  the  pool  of  blood 
at  which  his  master  was  gazing. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  201 

''The  Guises  have  provoked  the  House  of  Bourbon,"  said 
de  Beze  after  a  pause ;  "they  broke  the  stick  between  them  at 
Orleans." 

"Ay,"  said  Calvin;  "and  you,  my  son,  did  not  believe  me 
when,  as  you  last  started  for  Nerac,  I  told  you  that  we  should 
end  by  stirring  up  war  to  the  death  between  the  two  branches 
of  the  royal  family  in  France. 

"So  at  last  I  have  a  court,  a  king,  a  dynasty  on  my  side. 
My  doctrine  has  had  its  effect  on  the  masses.  The  citizen 
class  understand  me;  henceforth  they  will  call  those  who  go 
to  Mass  idolaters,  those  who  paint  the  walls  of  their  place 
of  worship,  and  put  up  pictures  and  statues  there.  Oh,  the 
populace  find  it  far  easier  to  demolish  cathedrals  and  palaces 
than  to  discuss  justification  by  faith  or  the  real  presence ! 
Luther  was  a  wrangler,  I  am  an  army !  He  was  a  reasoner, 
I  am  a  system !  He,  my  child,  was  but  a  tormentor,  I  am  a 
Tarquin ! 

"Yes,  they  of  the  truth  will  destroy  churches,  will  tear  down 
pictures,  will  make  millstones  of  the  statues  to  grind  the 
bread  of  the  people.  There  are  bodies  in  great  States,  I  will 
have  only  individuals;  bodies  are  too  resistant,  and  see 
clearly  when  individuals  are  blind. 

"Now,  we  must  combine  this  agitating  doctrine  with  polit- 
ical interests,  to  consolidate  it  and  to  keep  up  the  material 
of  my  armies.  I  have  satisfied  the  logic  of  thrifty  minds 
and  thinking  brains  by  this  bare,  undecorated  worship  which 
lifts  religion  into  the  sphere  of  the  ideal.  I  have  made  the 
mob  understand  the  advantages  of  the  suppression  of  cere- 
monial. 

"Now  it  is  your  part,  Theodore,  to  enlist  people's  interests. 
Do  not  overstep  that  line.  In  the  way  of  doctrine  every- 
thing has  been  done,  everything  has  been  said;  add  not  one 
jot!  Why  does  Cameron,  that  little  pasteur  in  Gascony, 
meddle  with  writing?" 

Calvin,  Theodore  de  Beze,  and  Chaudieu  went  along  the 
streets  of  the  upper  town  and  through  the  crowd,  without 
any  attention  being  paid  to  the  men  who  were  unchain  mg  the 


202  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

mob  in  cities  and  ravaging  France.  After  this  terrifying 
harangue,  they  walked  on  in  silence,  till  they  reached  the 
little  square  of  Saint-Pierre,  and  made  their  way  towards 
the  minister's  dwelling.  Calvin's  lodging  consisted  of  three 
rooms  on  the  second  floor  of  this  house,  which  is  hardly 
known,  and  of  which  no  one  ever  tells  you  in  Geneva — 
where,  indeed,  there  is  no  statue  to  Calvin.  The  rooms  were 
floored  and  wainscoted  with  pine,  and  on  one  side  there  were 
a  kitchen  and  a  servant's  room.  The  entrance,  as  is  com- 
monly the  case  in  Genevese  houses,  was  through  the  kitchen, 
which  opened  into  a  small  room  with  two  windows,  parlor, 
dining,  and  drawing-room  in  one.  Next  to  this  was  the 
study  where,  for  fourteen  years,  Calvin's  mind  had  carried 
on  the  battle  with  pain,  and  beyond  was  his  bedroom.  Four  oak 
chairs  with  tapestry  seats,  placed  round  a  long  table,  formed 
all  the  furniture  of  the  sitting-room.  A  white  earthenware 
stove  in  one  comer  of  the  room  gave  out  a  pleasant  warmth; 
paneling  of  unvarnished  pine  covered  the  walls,  and  there 
was  no  other  decoration.  The  bareness  of  the  place  was  quite 
in  keeping  with  the  frugal  and  simple  life  led  by  the  Ee- 
former. 

"Well,"  said  de  Beze,  as  he  went  in,  taking  advantage  of  a 
few  minutes  when  Chaudieu  had  left  them  to  put  up  the 
horses  at  a  neighboring  inn,  "what  am  I  to  do?  Will  you 
agree  to  this  meeting?" 

"Certainly,"  said  Calvin.  "You,  my  son,  will  bear  the 
brunt  of  the  struggle.  Be  decisive,  absolute.  .  Nobody, 
neither  the  Queen,  nor  the  Guises,  nor  I  want  pacification 
as  a  result;  it  would  not  suit  our  purpose.  I  have  much 
confidence  in  Duplessis-Mornay.    Give  him  the  leading  part. 

We  are  alone "  said  he,  with  a  suspicious  glance  into  the 

kitchen,  of  which  the  door  was  open,  showing  two  shirts  and 
some  collars  hung  to  dry  on  a  line.  "Go  and  shut  all  the 
doors. — ^Well,"  he  went  on,  when  Theodore  had  done  his  bid- 
ding, "we  must  compel  the  King  of  Navarre  to  join  the 
Guises  and  the  Connetable  de  Montmorency,  by  advising  him 
JO  desert  Queen  Catherine  de'  Medici.    Let  us  take  full  ad- 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  208 

Tantage  of  his  weakness;  he  is  but  a  poor  creature.  If  he 
prove  a  turncoat  to  the  Italian  woman,  she,  finding  herself 
bereft  of  his  support,  must  inevitably  join  the  Prince  de 
Conde  and  Coligny.  Such  a  manoeuvre  may  possibly  com- 
promise her  so  effectually  that  she  must  remain  on  ouj 
side " 

Theodore  de  Beze  raised  the  hem  of  Calvin's  gown  and 
kissed  it. 
;     "Oh,  master,"  said  he,  "you  are  indeed  great !" 

"Unfortunately,  I  am  dying,  my  dear  Theodore.  If  I 
should  die  before  seeing  you  again,"  he  went  on,  whispering 
in  the  ear  of  his  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  "remember 
to  strike  a  great  blow  by  the  hand  of  one  of  our  martyrs." 

"Another  Minard  to  be  killed  ?" 

"Higher  than  a  lawyer." 

"A  king !" 

"Higher  still.    The  man  who  wants  to  be  king.'* 

"The  Due  de  Guise?"  cried  Theodore,  with  a  gesture  of 
dismay. 

"Well,"  cried  Calvin,  fancying  that  he  discerned  refusal, 
or  at  least  an  instinct  of  resistance,  and  failing  to  notice  the 
entrance  of  Chaudieu,  "have  we  not  a  right  to  strike  as  we 
are  struck  ?  Yes,  and  in  darkness  and  silence !  May  we  not 
return  wound  for,  wound,  and  death  for  death?  Do  the 
Catholics  hesitate  to  lay  snares  for  us  and  kill  us  ?  I  trust  to 
you !  Bum  their  churches.  Go  on,  my  sons !  If  you  have 
any  devoted  youths " 

"I  have,"  Chaudieu  put  in. 

"Use  them  as  weapons  of  war.  To  triumph,  we  may  use 
every  means.  The  Balafre,  that  terrible  man  of  war,  is,  like 
me,  more  than  a  man ;  he  is  a  dynasty,  as  I  am  a  system ;  he 
is  capable  of  annihilating  us !    Death  to  the  Due  de  Guise !" 

"I  should  prefer  a  peaceful  victory,  brought  about  by  time 
and  reason,"  said  de  Beze. 

"By  time!"  cried  Calvin,  flinging  over  his  chair.  "By 
reason  !  Are  you  mad  ?  Conquer  by  reason  ?  Do  you  know 
nothing  of  men,  you  who  live  among  them — idiot?    What 


204  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

is  80  fatal  to  my  teaching,  thrice-dyed  simpleton,  is  that  it 
is  based  on  reason.  By  the  thunders  of  Saint  Paul,  by  the 
sword  of  the  Mighty !  Pumpkin  as  you  are,  Theodore,  cannot 
you  see  the  power  that  the  catastrophe  at  Amboise  has  given 
to  my  reforms?  Ideas  can  never  grow  till  they  are  watered 
with  blood.  The  murder  of  the  Due  de  Guise  would  give 
rise  to  a  fearful  persecution,  and  I  hope  for  it  with  all  my 
might!  To  us  reverses  are  more  favorable  than  success! 
The  Eef  ormation  can  be  beaten  and  endure,  do  you  hear,  oaf  ? 
Whereas  Catholicism  is  overthrown  if  we  win  a  single  battle. 

"What  are  these  lieutenants  of  mine?  Wet  rags  and  not 
men !  Guts  on  two  legs !  Christened  baboons !  0  God,  wilt 
Thou  not  grant  me  another  ten  years  to  live?  If  I  die  too 
soon,  the  cause  of  religion  is  lost  in  the  hands  of  such  rascals ! 

"You  are  as  helpless  as  Antoine  de  Navarre!  Begone! 
leave  me !  I  must  have  a  better  messenger !  You  are  an  ass, 
a  popinjay,  a  poet !  Go,  write  your  Catullics,  your  Tibullics, 
your  acrostics  !    Hoo  !" 

The  pain  he  suffered  was  entirely  swamped  by  the  fires  of 
his  wrath.  Gout  vanished  before  this  fearful  excitement. 
Calvin's  face  was  blotched  with  purple,  like  the  sky  before 
a  storm.  His  broad  forehead  shone.  His  eyes  flashed  fire. 
He  was  not  like  the  same  man.  He  let  himself  give  way 
to  this  sort  of  epileptic  frenzy,  almost  madness,  which  was 
habitual  with  him ;  but,  then,  struck  by  the  silence  of  his  two 
listeners,  and  observing  Chaudieu,  who  said  to  de  Beze,  "The 
burning  bush  of  Horeb !"  the  minister  sat  down,  was  dumb, 
and  covered  his  face  with  his  hands,  with  their  thickened 
joints,  and  his  fingers  quivered  in  spite  of  their  strength. 

A  few  minutes  later,  while  still  trembling  from  the  last 
shocks  of  this  tempest — the  result  of  his  austere  life — ^he  said 
in  a  broken  voice: 

;  *T^y  vices,  which  are  many,  are  less  hard  to  subdue  than 
my  impatience !  Ah !  wild  beast,  shall  I  never  conquer  you?" 
he  exclaimed,  striking  his  breast. 

'Tily  beloved  master,"  said  de  Beze  in  a  caressing  tone, 
taking  his  hands  and  kissing  them,  "Jove  thunders,  but  he 
can  smile." 


ABOUT  CATHBKINE  DE'  MEDICI  205 

Calvin  looked  at  his  disciple  with  a  softened  expression. 

"Do  not  misunderstand  me,  my  friends/'  he  said. 

"I  understand  that  the  shepherds  of  nations  have  terrible 
burdens  to  bear,"  replied  Theodore.  "You  have  a  world  on 
your  shoulders." 

"I,"  said  Chaudieu,  who  had  become  thoughtful  under  the 
master's  abuse,  "have  three  martyrs  on  whom  we  can  depend. 
Stuart,  who  killed  the  President,  is  free " 

"That  will  not  do,"  said  Calvin  mildly,  and  smiling,  as  a 
great  man  can  smile  when  fair  weather  follows  a  storm  on  his 
face,  as  if  he  were  ashamed  of  the  tempest.  "I  know  men. 
He  who  kills  one  President  will  not  kill  a  second." 

"Is  it  absolutely  necessary  ?"  said  de  Beze. 

"What,  again?"  cried  Calvin,  his  nostrils  expanding, 
"There,  go ;  you  will  put  me  in  a  rage  again.  You  have  my 
decision. — You,  Chaudieu,  walk  in  your  own  path,  and  keep 
the  Paris  flock  together.  God  be  with  you. — Dinah !  Light 
my  friends  out." 

"Will  you  not  allow  me  to  embrace  you?"  said  de  Beze 
with  emotion.  "Who  can  tell  what  the  morrow  will  bring 
forth  ?    We  may  be  imprisoned  in  spite  of  safe-conducts " 

"And  yet  you  want  to  spare  them !"  said  Calvin,  embracing 
de  Beze. 

He  took  Chaudieu's  hand,  saying: 

"Mind  you,  not  Huguenots,  not  Keformers :  be  Calvinists ! 
Speak  only  of  Calvinism. — Alas !  this  is  not  ambition,  for  I 
am  a  dying  man ! — Only,  everything  of  Luther's  must  be 
destroyed,  to  the  very  names  of  Lutheran  and  Lutheranism." 

"Indeed,  divine  man,  you  deserve  such  honor !"  cried  Chau- 
dieu. 

"Uphold  uniformity  of  creed.  Do  not  allow  any  further 
examination  or  reconstruction.  If  new  sects  arise  from 
among  us,  we  are  lost." 

To  anticipate  events  and  dismiss  Theodore  de  Beze,  who 
returned  to  Paris  with  Chaudieu,  it  may  be  said  that  Poltrot, 
who,  eighteen  months  later,  fired  a  pistol  at  the  Due  de  Guise, 
confessed,  under  torture,  that  he  had  been  urged  to  the  crime 


206  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

by  Theodore  de  Beze;  however,  he  retracted  his  statement 
at  a  later  stage.  Indeed.  Bossuet,  who  weighed  all  the  his- 
torical evidence,  did  not  think  that  the  idea  of  this  attempt 
was  due  to  Theodore  de  Beze.  Since  Bossuet,  however,  a  dis- 
sertation of  an  apparently  trivial  character,  a  propos  to  a 
famous  ballad,  enabled  a  compiler  of  the  eighteenth  century 
to  prove  that  the  song  sung  throughout  France  by  the  Hu- 
guenots on  the  death  of  the  Due  de  Guise  was  written  by 
Theodore  de  Beze ;  and,  moreover,  that  the  well-known  ballad 
or  lament  on  Malbrouck — the  Duke  of  Marlborough — is  pla- 
giarized from  Theodore  de  B^ze.* 

On  the  day  when  Theodore  de  Beze  and  Chaudieu  reached 
Paris,  the  Court  had  returned  thither  from  Eeims,  where 
Charles  IX.  had  been  crowned.  This  ceremony,  to  which 
Catherine  gave  unusual  splendor,  making  it  the  occasion  of 
great  festivities,  enabled  her  to  gather  round  her  the  leaders 
of  every  faction. 

After  studying  the  various  parties  and  interests,  she  saw 
a  choice  of  two  alternatives — either  to  enlist  them  on  the  side 
of  the  Throne,  or  to  set  them  against  each  other.  The  Con- 
netable  de  Montmorency,  above  all  else  a  Catholic,  whose 
nephew,  the  Prince  de  Conde,  was  the  leader  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, and  whose  children  also  had  a  leaning  to  that  creed, 
blamed  the  Queen-mother  for  allying  herself  with  that 
party.  The  Guises,  on  their  side,  worked  hard  to  gain  over 
Antoine  de  Bourbon,  a  Prince  of  no  strength  of  character, 
and  attach  him  to  their  faction,  and  his  wife,  the  Queen  of 
Navarre,  informed  by  de  Beze,  allowed  this  to  be  done.  These 
difficulties  checked  Catherine,  whose  newly-acquired  authority 
needed  a  brief  period  of  tranquillity ;  she  impatiently  awaited 
Calvin's  reply  by  de  Beze  and  Chaudiea,  sent  to  the  great 
Reformer  on  behalf  of  the  Prince  de  Conde,  the  King  of 
Navarre,  Coligny,  d'Andelot,  and  Cardinal  de  Chatillon. 

Meanwhile,  the  Queen-mother  was  true  to  her  promises 
to  the  Prince  de  Conde.     The  Chancellor  quashed  the  trial, 

*  See  note  at  the  end  of  this  volume. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  2OT 

in  which  Christophe  was  involved,  by  referring  the  case 
to  the  Paris  Parlement,  and  they  annulled  the  sentence  pro- 
nounced by  the  Commission,  declaring  it  incompetent  to  try  a 
Prince  of  the  Blood.  The  Parlement  re-opened  the  trial  by 
the  desire  of  the  Guises  and  the  Queen-mother.  La  Sagne's 
papers  had  been  placed  in  Catherine's  hands,  and  she  had 
burnt  them.  This  sacrifice  was  the  first  pledge  given,  quite> 
vainly,  by  the  Guises  to  the  Queen-mother.  The  Parlement 
not  having  this  decisive  evidence,  reinstated  the  Prince  in  all 
his  rights,  possessions,  and  honors. 

Christophe,  thus  released  when  Orleans  was  in  all  its  ex- 
citement over  the  King's  accession,  was  excluded  from  the 
case,  and,  as  a  compensation  for  his  sufferings,  was  passed 
as  a  pleader  by  Monsieur  de  Thou. 

The  Triumvirate — the  coalition  of  interests  which  were 
imperiled  by  Catherine's  first  steps  in  authority — was  hatch- 
ing under  her  very  eyes.  Just  as  in  chemistry  hostile  ele- 
ments fly  asunder  at  the  shock  that  disturbs  their  compulsory 
union,  so  in  politics  the  alliance  of  antagonistic  interests 
can  never  last  long.  Catherine  fully  understood  that,  sooner 
or  later,  she  must  fall  back  on  the  Connetable  and  the  Guises 
to  fight  the  Huguenots.  The  convocation,  which  served  to 
flatter  the  vanity  of  the  orators  on  each  side,  and  as  an  excuse 
for  another  imposing  ceremony  after  that  of  the  coronation, 
to  clear  the  blood-stained  field  for  the  religious  war  that  had, 
indeed,  already  begun,  was  as  futile  in  the  eyes  of  the  Guises 
as  it  was  in  Catherine's.  The  Catholics  could  not  fail  to  be 
the  losers;  for  the  Huguenots,  under  the  pretence  of  discus- 
sion, would  be  able  to  proclaim  their  doctrine  in  the  face  of 
all  France,  under  the  protection  of  the  King  and  his  mother. 
The  Cardinal  de  Lorraine,  flattered  by  Catherine  into  the 
hope  of  conquering  the  heretics  by  the  eloquence  of  the 
Princes  of  the  Church,  induced  his  brother  to  consent.  To 
the  Queen-mother  six  months  of  peace  meant  much. 

A  trivial  incident  was  near  wrecking  the  power  which 
Catherine  was  so  laboriously  building  up.  This  is  the  scene 
as  recorded  by  history;  it  occurred  on  the  very  day  when  the 


208  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

envoys  from  Geneva  arrived  at  the  Hotel  de  Coligny  in  the 
Eue  Bethisy,  not  far  from  the  Louvre.  At  the  coronation, 
Charles  IX.,  who  was  much  attached  to  his  instructor,  Amyot, 
made  him  High  Almoner  of  France.  This  affection  was  fully 
shared  by  the  Due  d'Anjou  (Henri  III.),  who  also  was 
Amyot's  pupil. 

Catherine  heard  this  from  the  two  Gondis  on  the  way  home 
from  Eeims  to  Paris.  She  had  relied  on  this  Crown  appoint- 
ment to  gain  her  a  supporter  in  the  Church,  and  a  person  of 
importance  to  set  against  the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine;  she  had 
intended  to  bestow  it  on  Cardinal  de  Tournon,  so  as  to  find 
in  him,  as  in  I'Hopital,  a  second  crutch — to  use  her  own 
words.  On  arriving  at  the  Louvre,  she  sent  for  the  preceptor. 
Her  rage  at  seeing  the  catastrophe  that  threatened  her  policy 
from  the  ambition  of  this  self-made  man — the  son  of  a 
shoemaker — was  such  that  she  addressed  him  in  this  strange 
speech  recorded  by  certain  chroniclers: 

"What!  I  can  make  the  Guises  cringe,  the  Colignys,  the 
Montmorencys,  the  House  of  Navarre,  the  Prince  de  Conde, 
and  I  am  to  be  balked  by  a  priestling  like  you,  who  were  no^ 
content  to  be  Bishop  of  Auxerre !" 

Amyot  excused  himself.  He  had,  in  fact,  asked  for  noth- 
ing; the  King  had  appointed  him  of  his  own  free  will  to 
this  office,  of  which  he,  a  humble  teacher,  regarded  himself 
as  unworthy. 

"Best  assured.  Master,"  for  it  was  by  this  name  that  the 
Kings  Charles  IX.  and  Henri  III.  addressed  this  great  writer, 
"that  you  will  not  be  left  standing  for  twenty-four  hours 
unless  you  induce  your  pupil  to  change  his  mind." 

Between  death  promised  him  in  such  an  uncompromising 
way,  and  the  abdication  of  the  highest  ecclesiastical  office 
in  the  kingdom,  the  shoemaker's  son,  who  had  grown  covet- 
ous, and  hoped  perhaps  for  a  Cardinal's  hat,  determined  to 
temporize.     He  hid  in  the  abbey  of  Saint-Germain  en  Laye. 

At  his  first  dinner,  Charles  IX.,  not  seeing  Amyot,  asked 
for  him.  Some  Guisard,  no  doubt,  told  the  King  what  had 
passed  between  Amyot  and  the  Queen-mother. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  209 

''What!"  cried  he,  "has  he  been  made  away  with  because 
I  created  him  High  Almoner  ?" 

He  went  off  to  his  mother  in  the  violent  state  of  a  child 
when  one  of  his  fancies  is  contravened. 

"Madame/'  said  he,  as  he  entered  her  room,  "did  I  not 
comply  with  your  wishes,  and  sign  the  letter  you  asked  of  me 
for  the  Parlement,  by  virtue  of  which  you  govern  my  king- 
dom? Did  you  not  promise  me,  when  you  laid  it  before  me, 
that  my  will  should  be  yours  ?  and  now  the  only  favor  I  have 
cared  to  bestow  excites  your  jealousy. — The  Chancellor  talks 
of  making  me  of  age  at  fourteen,  three  years  from  hence, 
and  you  treat  me  as  a  child ! — By  God,  but  I  mean  to  be  King, 
and  as  much  a  King  as  my  father  and  grandfather  were 
kings !" 

The  tone  and  vehemence  with  which  he  spoke  these  words 
were  a  revelation  to  Catherine  of  her  son's  true  character; 
it  was  like  a  blow  from  a  bludgeon  on  her  heart. 

"And  he  speaks  thus  to  me,"  thought  she,  "to  me,  who 
made  him  King." — "Monsieur,"  she  said,  "the  business  of 
being  King  in  such  times  as  these  is  a  difficult  one,  and  you 
do  not  yet  know  the  master  minds  you  have  to  deal  with. 
You  will  never  have  any  true  and  trustworthy  friend  but 
your  mother,  or  other  adherents  than  those  whom  she  long 
since  attached  to  her,  and  but  for  whom  you  would  perhaps 
not  be  alive  at  this  day.  The  Guises  are  averse  both  to  your 
position  and  your  person,  I  would  have  you  know.  If  they 
could  sew  me  up  in  a  sack  and  throw  me  into  the  river,"  said 
she,  pointing  to  the  Seine,  "they  would  do  it  to-night.  Those 
Lorrainers  feel  that  I  am  a  lioness  defending  her  cubs,  and 
that  stays  the  bold  hands  they  stretch  out  to  clutch  the  crown. 
To  whom,  to  what  is  your  preceptor  attached?  where  are  his 
allies?  what  is  his  authority?  what  services  can  he  do  you? 
what  weight  will  his  words  have  ?  Instead  of  gaining  a  but- 
tress to  uphold  your  power,  you  have  undermined  it. 

"The  Cardinal  de  Lorraine  threatens  you;  he  plays  the 
King,  and  keeps  his  hat  on  his  head  in  the  presence  of  the 
first  Prince  of  the  Blood;  was  it  not  necessary  to  counter- 


210  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

balance  him  with  another  cardinal,  invested  with  authority 
equal  to  his  own?  Is  Amyot,  a  shoemaker  who  might  tie 
the  bows  of  his  shoes,  the  man  to  defy  him  to  his  face  ? — Well, 
well,  you  are  fond  of  Amyot.  You  have  appointed  him! 
Your  first  decision  shall  be  respected,  my  Lord !  But  before 
deciding  any  further,  have  the  kindness  to  consult  me.  Listen 
to  reasons  of  State,  and  your  boyish  good  sense  will  perhaps 
.  agree  with  my  old  woman's  experience  before  deciding,  when 
'you  know  all  the  difficulties." 

"You  must  bring  back  my  master!"  said  the  King,  not 
listening  very  carefully  to  the  Queen,  on  finding  her  speech 
full  of  reproofs. 

"Yes,  you  shall  have  him,"  replied  she.  "But  not  he, 
nor  even  that  rough  Cypierre,  can  teach  you  to  reign." 

"It  is  you,  my  dear  mother,"  he  exclaimed,  mollified  by  his 
triumph,  and  throwing  off  the  threatening  and  sly  expression 
which  Nature  had  stamped  on  his  physiognomy. 

Catherine  sent  Gondi  to  find  the  High  Almoner.  When 
the  Florentine  had  discovered  Amyot's  retreat,  and  the 
Bishop  heard  that  the  courtier  came  from  the  Queen,  he  was 
seized  with  terror,  and  would  not  come  out  of  the  Abbey. 
In  this  extremity  Catherine  was  obliged  to  write  to  him 
herself,  and  in  such  terms  that  he  came  back  and  obtained 
the  promise  of  her  support,  but  only  on  condition  of  his 
obeying  her  blindly  in  all  that  concerned  the  King. 

This  little  domestic  tempest  being  lulled,  Catherine  came 
back  to  the  Louvre.  It  was  more  than  a  year  since  she  had 
left  it,  and  she  now  held  council  with  her  nearest  friends 
as  to  how  she  was  to  deal  with  the  young  King,  whom  Cy- 
pierre had  complimented  on  his  firmness. 

'^hat  is  to  be  done?"  said  she  to  the  two  Gondis,  Rug- 
gieri,  Birague,  and  Chivemi,  now  tutor  and  Chancellor  to 
the  Due  d'Anjou. 

"First  of  all,"  said  Birague,  "get  rid  of  Cypierre;  he  is 
not  a  courtier,  he  will  never  fall  in  with  your  views,  and  will 
think  he  is  doing  his  duty  by  opposing  you." 

"Whom  can  I  trust  ?"  cried  the  Queen. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  211 

"One  of  us,"  said  Birague. 

"By  my  faith,"  said  Gondi,  "I  promise  to  make  the  King 
as  pliant  as  the  King  of  Navarre." 

"You  let  the  late  King  die  to  save  your  other  children; 
well,  then,  do  as  the  grand  Signors  of  Constantinople  do: 
crush  this  one's  passions  and  fancies,"  said  Albert  de  Gondi. 
"He  likes  the  arts,  poetry,  hunting,  and  a  little  girl  he  saw  at 
Orleans;  all  this  is  quite  enough  to  occupy  him." 
1  "Then  you  would  be  the  King's  tutor?"  said  Catherine,  to 
the  more  capable  of  the  two  Gondis. 

"If  you  will  give  me  the  necessary  authority;  it  might  be 
well  to  make  me  a  Marshal  of  France  and  a  Duke.  Cypierre 
is  too  small  a  man  to  continue  in  that  office.  Henceforth 
the  tutor  of  a  King  of  France  should  be  a  Marshal  and  Duke, 
or  something  of  the  kind " 

"He  is  right,"  said  Birague. 

"Poetry  and  hunting,"  said  Catherine,  in  a  dreamy  voice. 

"We  will  hunt  and  make  love !"  cried  Gondi. 

"Besides,"  said  Chiverni,  "you  are  sure  of  Amyot,  who  will 
always  be  afraid  of  a  drugged  cup  in  case  of  disobedience, 
and  with  Gondi  you  will  have  the  King  in  leading  strings." 

"You  were  resigned  to  the  loss  of  one  son  to  save  the  three 
others  and  the  Crown;  now  you  must  have  the  courage  to 
keep  this  one  occupied  to  save  the  kingdom — to  save  yourself 
perhaps,"  said  Euggieri. 

"He  has  just  offended  me  deeply,"  said  Catherine. 

"He  does  not  know  how  much  he  owes  you ;  and  if  he  did, 
you  would  not  be  safe,"  Birague  replied  with  grave  emphasis. 

"It  is  settled,"  said  the  Queen,  on  whom  this  reply  had  a 
startling  effect;  "you  are  to  be  the  King^s  governor,  Gondi. 
The  King  must  make  me  a  return  in  favor  of  one  of  my 
friends  for  the  concession  I  have  made  for  that  cowardly 
Bishop.  But  the  fool  has  lost  the  Cardinal's  hat;  so  long 
as  I  live  I  will  hinder  the  Pope  from  fitting  it  to  his  head ! 
We  should  have  been  very  strong  with  Cardinal  de  Tournon 
to  support  us.  What  a  trio  they  would  have  made:  he  as 
High  Almoner  with  I'Hopital  and  de  Thou !    As  to  the  citi- 


212  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

zens  of  Paris,  I  mean  to  make  my  son  coax  them  over,  and 
we  will  lean  on  them." 

And  Gondi  was,  in  fact,  made  a  Marshal,  created  Due  de 
Eetz  and  tutor  to  the  King,  within  a  few  days. 

This  little  council  was  just  over  when  Cardinal  de  Tour- 
non  came  to  announce  to  the  Queen  the  messengers  from 
Calvin.  Admiral  Coligny  escorted  them  to  secure  them  re- 
spectful treatment  at  the  Louvre.  The  Queen  summoned  her 
battalion  of  maids  of  honor,  and  went  into  the  great  recep- 
tion-room built  by  her  husband,  which  no  longer  exists  in  the 
Louvre  of  our  day. 

At  that  time  the  staircase  of  the  Louvre  was  in  the  clock- 
tower.  Catherine's  rooms  were  in  the  older  part  of  the 
building,  part  of  which  survives  in  the  Cour  du  Musee.  The 
present  staircase  to  the  galleries  was  built  where  the  Salle 
des  ballets  was  before  it.  A  ballet  at  that  time  meant  a  sort 
of  dramatic  entertainment  performed  by  all  the  Court. 

Eevolutionary  prejudice  led  to  the  most  ridiculous  mistake 
as  to  Charles  IX.  a  propos  to  the  Louvre.  During  the  Kevolu- 
tion  a  belief  defamatory  of  this  King,  whose  character  has 
been  caricatured,  made  a  monster  of  him.  Chenier's  tragedy 
was  written  under  the  provocation  of  a  tablet  hung  up  on  the 
window  of  the  part  of  the  palace  that  projects  towards  the 
Quay.  On  it  were  these  words,  "From  this  window  Charles 
IX.  of  execrable  memory  fired  on  the  citizens  of  Paris."  It 
may  be  well  to  point  out  to  future  historians  and  studious 
persons  that  the  whole  of  that  side  of  the  Louvre,  now  called 
the  Old  Louvre — the  projecting  wing  at  a  right  angle  to  the 
Quay,  connected  the  galleries  with  the  Louvre  by  what  is 
called  the  Galerie  d'Apollon,  and  the  Louvre  with  the  Tuile- 
ries  by  the  picture  gallery — was  not  in  existence  in  the  time 
of  Charles  IX.  The  principal  part  of  the  site  of  the  river- 
front, where  lies  the  garden  known  as  le  Jardin  de  I'Infante, 
was  occupied  by  the  Hotel  de  Bourbon,  which  belonged,  in 
fact,  to  the  House  of  Navarre.  It  would  have  been  physically 
impossible  for  Charles  IX.  to  fire  from  the  Louvre  de  Henri 
II.  on  a  boat  full  of  Huguenots  crossing  the  Seine,  though 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  21*1 

he  could  see  the  river  from  some  windows,  which  are  now 
built  up,  in  that  part  of  the  palace. 

Even  if  historians  and  libraries  did  not  possess  maps  in 
which  the  Louvre  at  the  time  of  Charies  IX.  is  perfectly 
shown,  the  building  bears  in  itself  the  refutation  of  the  error. 
The  several  Kings  who  have  contributed  to  this  vast  structure 
have  never  failed  to  leave  their  cipher  on  the  work  in  some 
form  of  monogram.  The  venerable  buildings,  now  all  dis- 
colored, of  that  part  of  the  Louvre  that  goes  down  to  thb 
Quay  bear  the  initials  of  Henri  11.  and  of  Henri  IV. ;  quite 
different  from  those  of  Henri  III.,  who  added  to  his  H  Cath- 
erine's double  C  in  a  way  that  looks  like  D  to  superficial 
observers.  It  was  Henri  IV.  who  was  able  to  add  his  own 
palace,  the  Hotel  de  Bourbon,  with  its  gardens  and  domain, 
on  to  the  Louvre.  He  first  thought  of  uniting  Catherine 
de'  Medici's  palace  to  the  Louvre  by  finishing  the  galleries, 
of  which  the  exquisite  sculpture  is  too  little  appreciated. 

But  if  no  plan  of  Paris  under  Charles  IX.  were  in  exist- 
ence, nor  the  monograms  of  the  two  Henrys,  the  difference 
in  the  architecture  would  be  enough  to  give  the  lie  to  this 
calumny.  The  rusticated  bosses  of  the  Hotel  de  la  Force, 
and  of  this  portion  of  the  Louvre,  are  precisely  characteristic 
of  the  transition  from  the  architecture  of  the  Eenaissance  to 
the  architecture  of  Henri  III.,  Henri  IV.,  and  Louis  XIII. 

This  archaeological  digression,  in  harmony,  to  be  sure,  with 
the  pictures  at  the  beginning  of  this  narrative,  enables  us  to 
see  the  aspect  of  this  other  part  of  Paris,  of  which  nothing 
now  remains  but  that  portion  of  the  Louvre,  where  the  beau- 
tiful bas-reliefs  are  perishing  day  by  day. 

When  the  Court  was  informed  that  the  Queen  was  about 
to  give  audience  to  Theodore  de  Beze  and  Chaudieu,  intro- 
duced by  Admiral  Coligny,  every  one  who  had  a  right  to  go 
into  the  throne  room  hastened  to  be  present  at  this  interview. 
It  was  about  six  o'clock;  Admiral  Coligny  had  supped,  and 
was  picking  his  teeth  as  he  walked  upstairs  between  the  two 
Calvinists.  This  playing  with  a  toothpick  was  a  confirmed 
habit  with  the  Admiral;  he  involuntarily  picked  his  teeth 
-15 


214  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DB'  MEDIO! 

in  the  middle  of  a  battle  when  meditating  a  retreat.  "Never 
trust  the  Admiral's  toothpick,  the  Constable's  'No/  or  Cath- 
erine's 'Yes/  " — was  one  of  the  proverbs  of  the  Court  at  the 
time.  And  after  the  massacre  of  Saint-Bartholomew,  the 
mob  made  horrible  mockery  of  the  Admiral's  body,  which 
hung  for  three  days  at  Montfaucon,  by  sticking  a  grotesque 
toothpick  between  his  teeth.  Chroniclers  have  recorded  this 
hideous  jest.  And,  indeed,  this  trivial  detail  in  the  midst 
of  a  tremendous  catastrophe  is  just  like  the  Paris  mob,  which 
thoroughly  deserves  this  grotesque  parody  of  a  line  of 
Boileau's : 

Le  Frangais,  n6  malin,  cr§a  la  guillotine. 

(The  Frenchman,  a  born  wag,  invented  the  guillotine.) 

In  all  ages,  the  Parisians  have  made  fun  before,  during, 
and  after  the  most  terrible  revolutions. 

Theodore  de  Beze  was  in  Court  dress,  black  silk  long  hose> 
slashed  shoes,  full  trunks,  a  doublet  of  black  silk,  also  slashed, 
and  a  little  black  velvet  cloak,  over  which  fell  a  fine  white 
ruff,  deeply  gauffered.  He  wore  the  tuft  of  beard  called  a 
virguU  (a  comma)  and  a  moustache.  His  sword  hung  by 
his  side,  and  he  carried  a  cane.  All  who  know  the  pictures 
at  "Versailles,  or  the  portraits  by  Odieuvre,  know  his  round 
and  almost  jovial  face,  with  bright  eyes,  and  the  remarkably 
high  and  broad  forehead,  which  is  characteristic  of  the  poeta 
and  writers  of  that  time.  De  Beze  had  a  pleasant  face, 
which  did  him  good  service.  He  formed  a  striking  contrast 
to  Coligny,  whose  austere  features  are  known  to  all,  and  to 
the  bitter  and  bilious-looking  Chaudieu,  who  wore  the  preach- 
er's gown  and  Calvinist  bands. 

The  state  of  affairs  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  in  our 
own  day,  and  that,  no  doubt,  in  the  Convention  too,  may  en- 
able us  to  understand  how  at  that  Court  and  at  that  time 
persons,  who  six  months  after  would  be  fighting  to  the  death 
and  waging  heinous  warfare,  would  meanwhile  meet,  address 
each  other  with  courtesy,  and  exchange  jests. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  215 

When  Coligny  entered  the  room,  Birague,  who  would  coldly 
advise  the  massacre  of  Saint-Bartholomew,  and  the  Cardinal 
de  Lorraine,  who  would  tell  his  servant  Besme  not  to  miss 
the  Admiral,  came  forward  to  meet  him,  and  the  Piedmontese 
said,  with  a  smile: 

"Well,  my  dear  Admiral,  so  you  have  undertaken  to  intro- 
duce these  gentlemen  from  Geneva?" 

"And  you  will  count  it  to  me  for  a  crime,  perhaps,"  replied 
the  Admiral  in  jest,  "while,  if  you  had  undertaken  it,  you 
would  have  scored  it  as  a  merit." 

"Master  Calvin,  I  hear,  is  very  ill,"  said  the  Cardinal  de 
Lorraine  to  Theodore  de  Beze.  "I  hope  we  shall  not  be  sus- 
pected of  having  stirred  his  broth  for  him !" 

"Nay,  monseigneur,  you  would  lose  too  much  by  that," 
said  Theodore  de  Beze  shrewdly. 

The  Due  de  Guise,  who  was  examining  Chaudieu,  stared 
at  his  brother  and  Birague,  who  were  both  startled  by  this 
speech. 

"By  God!"  exclaimed  the  Cardinal,  ^Tieretics  are  of  the 
right  faith  in  keen  politics !" 

To  avoid  difficulties,  the  Queen,  who  was  announced  at  this 
moment,  remained  standing.  She  began  by  conversing  with 
the  Connetable,  who  spoke  eagerly  of  the  scandal  of  her  ad- 
mitting Calvin's  envoys  to  her  presence. 

"But,  you  see,  my  dear  Constable,  we  receive  them  without 
ceremony." 

"Madame,"  said  the  Admiral,  approaching  Catherine, 
"these  are  the  two  doctors  of  the  new  religion  who  have  come 
to  an  understanding  with  Calvin,  and  have  taken  his  in- 
structions as  to  a  meeting  where  the  various  Churches  of 
France  may  compromise  their  differences." 

"This  is  Monsieur  Theodore  de  Beze,  my  wife's  very  great 
favorite,"  said  the  King  of  Navarre,  coming  forward  and 
taking  de  Beze  by  the  hand. 

"And  here  is  Chaudieu !"  cried  the  Prince  de  Conde.  "My 
friend  the  Due  de  Guise  knows  the  captain,"  he  added,  look- 


216  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

ing  at  la  Balaf  re ;  "perhaps  he  would  like  to  make  acquaint- 
ance with  the  minister." 

This  sally  made  everybody  laugh,  even  Catherine. 

"By  my  troth/'  said  the  Due  de  Guise,  "I  am  delighted  to 
see  a  man  who  can  so  well  choose  a  follower,  and  make  use 
of  him  in  his  degree.  One  of  your  men,"  said  he  to  the 
preacher,  "endured,  without  dying  or  confessing  anything, 
the  extreme  of  torture;  I  fancy  myself  brave,  but  I  do  not 
know  that  I  could  endure  so  well !" 

"Hm!"  observed  Ambroise  Pare,  "you  said  not  a  word 
when  I  pulled  the  spear  out  of  your  face  at  Calais." 

Catherine,  in  the  middle  of  the  semicircle  formed  right 
and  left  of  the  maids  of  honor  and  Court  officials,  kept" 
silence.  While  looking  at  the  two  famous  Reformers,  she 
was  trying  to  penetrate  them  with  her  fine,  intelligent,  black 
eyes,  and  study  them  thoroughly. 

"One  might  be  the  sheath  and  the  other  the  blade,"  Albert 
de  Gondi  said  in  her  ear. 

"Well,  gentlemen,"  said  Catherine,  who  could  not  help 
smiling,  "has  your  master  given  you  liberty  to  arrange  a 
public  conference  where  you  may  convert  to  the  Word  of 
God  those  modern  Fathers  of  the  Church  who  are  the  glory 
of  our  realm?" 

"We  have  no  master  but  the  Lord,"  said  Chaudieu. 

'^ell,  you  acknowledge  some  authority  in  the  King  of 
France?"  said  Catherine,  smiling,  and  interrupting  the 
minister. 

"And  a  great  deal  in  the  Queen,"  added  de  Beze,  bowing 
low. 

"You  will  see,"  she  went  on,  "that  the  heretics  will  be 
my  most  dutiful  subjects." 

"Oh,  madame!"  cried  Coligny,  "what  a  splendid  kingdom 
we  will  make  for  you!  Europe  reaps  great  profit  from  our 
divisions.  It  has  seen  one-half  of  France  set  against  the 
other  for  fifty  years  past." 

"Have  we  come  here  to  hear  chants  in  praise  of  heretics  ?" 
said  the  Connetable  roughly. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  217 

"No,  but  to  bring  them  to  amendment,"  answered  the 
Cardinal  de  Lorraine  in  a  whisper,  "and  we  hope  to  achieve 
it  by  a  little  gentleness." 

"Do  you  know  what  I  should  have  done  in  the  reign  of  the 
King's  father?"  said  Anne  de  Montmorency.  "I  should  have 
sent  for  the  Provost  to  hang  those  two  rascals  high  and  dry 
on  the  Louvre  gallows." 

'^ell,  gentlemen,  and  who  are  the  learned  doctors  you  will 
bring  into  the  field  ?"  said  the  Queen,  silencing  the  Constable 
with  a  look. 

"Duplessis-Mornay  and  Theodore  de  Beze  are  our  leaders," 
said  Chaudieu. 

"The  Court  will  probably  go  to  the  chateau  of  Saint-Ger- 
main ;  and  as  it  would  not  be  seemly  that  this  colloquy  should 
take  place  in  the  same  town,  it  shall  be  held  in  the  little 
town  of  Poissy,"  replied  Catherine. 

"Shall  we  be  safe  there,  madame  ?"  asked  Chaudieu. 

"Oh !"  said  the  Queen,  with  a  sort  of  simplicity,  "you  will, 
no  doubt,  know  what  precautions  to  take.  Monsieur  the 
Admiral  will  make  arrangements  to  that  effect  with  mj; 
cousins  de  Guise  and  Montmorency." 

"Fie  on  it  all!"  said  the  Constable;  "I  will  have  no  part 
in  it." 

The  Queen  took  Chaudieu  a  little  way  apart. 

**What  do  you  do  to  your  sectarians  to  give  them  such  a 
spirit?"  said  she.    "My  furrier's  son  was  really  sublime." 

"We  have  faith,"  said  Chaudieu. 

At  this  moment  the  room  was  filled  with  eager  groups," 
all  discussing  the  question  of  this  assembly,  which,  from  the 
Queen's  suggestion,  was  already  spoken  of  as  the  "Convoca- 
tion of  Poissy."  Catherine  looked  at  Chaudieu,  and  felt  it 
safe  to  say : 

"Yes,  a  new  faith." 

"Ah,  madame,  if  you  were  not  blinded  by  your  connection 
with  the  Court  of  Eome,  you  would  see  that  we  are  returning 
to  the  true  doctrine  of  Jesus  Christ,  who,  while  sanctifying 
the  equality  of  souls,  has  given  all  men  on  earth  equal  rights." 


218  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

"And  do  you  think  yourself  the  equal  of  Calvin?"  said 
Catherine  shrewdly.  "Nay,  nay,  we  are  equals  only  in 
church.  What,  really?  Break  all  bonds  between  the 
people  and  the  throne?"  cried  Catherine.  "You  are  not 
merely  heretics;  you  rebel  against  obedience  to  the  King 
while  avoiding  all  obedience  to  the  Pope." 

She  sharply  turned  away,  and  returned  to  Theodore  de 
B^ze.  , 

"I  trust  to  you,  monsieur,"  she  said,  "to  carry  throughj 
this  conference  conscientiously.     Take  time  over  it." 

"I  fancied,"  said  Chaudieu  to  the  Prince  de  Conde,  the 
King  of  Navarre,  and  Admiral  Coligny,  "that  affairs  of  State 
were  taken  more  seriously." 

"Oh,  we  all  know  exactly  what  we  mean,"  said  the  Prince 
de  Conde,  with  a  significant  glance  at  Theodore  de  Beze. 

The  hunchback  took  leave  of  his  followers  to  keep  an  as- 
signation. This  great  Prince  and  party  leader  was  one  of 
the  most  successful  gallants  of  the  Court;  the  two  hand- 
somest women  of  the  day  fought  for  him  with  such  infatua- 
tion, that  the  Marechale  de  Saint-Andre,  the  wife  of  one 
of  the  coming  Triumvirate,  gave  him  her  fine  estate  at  Saint- 
Valery  to  win  him  from  the  Duchesse  de  Guise,  the  wife  of 
the  man  who  had  wanted  to  bring  his  head  under  the  axe; 
being  unable  to  wean  the  Due  de  Nemours  from  his  flirta- 
tions with  Mademoiselle  de  Rohan,  she  fell  in  love,  mean- 
while, with  the  leader  of  the  Eeformed  party. 

"How  different  from  Geneva !"  said  Chaudieu  to  Theodore 
de  Beze  on  the  little  bridge  by  the  Louvre. 

"They  are  livelier  here,  and  I  cannot  imagine  why  they 
are  such  traitors,"  replied  de  Beze. 

"Meet  a  traitor  with  a  traitor-and-a-half,"  said  Chaudieu 
in  a  whisper.  "I  have  saints  in  Paris  that  I  can  rely  on,- 
and  I  mean  to  make  a  prophet  of  Calvin.  Christophe  will  rid 
us  of  the  most  dangerous  of  our  enemies." 

"The  Queen-mother,  for  whom  the  poor  wretch  endured 
torture,  has  already  had  him  passed,  by  high-handed  orders, 
as  pleader  before  the  Parlement,  and  lawyers  are  more  apt  to 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  219 

be  tell-tales  than  assassins.    Remember  Avenelles,  who  sold 
the  secret  of  our  first  attempt  to  take  up  arms." 

"But  I  know  Christophe,"  said  Chaudieu,  with  an  air  of 
conviction,  as  he  and  the  Calvinist  parted. 

Some  days  after  the  reception  of  Calvin's  secret  envoys 
by  Catherine,  and  towards  the  end  of  that  year — for  the  year 
then  began  at  Easter,  and  the  modem  calendar  was  not 
adopted  till  this  very  reign — Christophe,  still  stretched  on 
an  armchair,  was  sitting  on  that  side  of  the  large  sombre 
room  where  our  story  began,  in  such  a  position  as  to  look 
out  on  the  river.  His  feet  rested  on  a  stool.  Mademoiselle 
Lecamus  and  B^bette  Lallier  had  just  renewed  the  application 
of  compresses,  soaked  in  a  lotion  brought  by  Ambroise,  to 
whose  care  Catherine  had  commended  Christophe.  When 
once  he  was  restored  to  his  family,  the  lad  had  become  the 
object  of  the  most  devoted  care.  Babette,  with  her  father's 
permission,  came  to  the  house  every  morning,  and  did  not 
leave  till  the  evening.  Christophe,  a  subject  of  wonder  to 
the  apprentices,  gave  rise  in  the  neighborhood  to  endless 
tales,  which  involved  him  in  poetic  mystery.  He  had  been 
put  to  torture,  and  the  famous  Ambroise  Pare  was  exerting 
all  his  skill  to  save  him.  What,  then,  had  he  done  to  be 
treated  so?  On  this  point  neither  Christophe  nor  his  father 
breathed  a  word.  Catherine,  now  all-powerful,  had  an  in- 
terest in  keeping  silence,  and  so  had  the  Prince  de  Conde. 
The  visits  of  Ambroise  Pare,  the  surgeon  to  the  King  and 
to  the  House  of  Guise,  permitted  by  the  Queen-mother  and 
the  Princes  of  Lorraine  to  attend  a  youth  accused  of  heresy, 
added  to  the  singularity  of  this  business,  which  no  one  could 
see  through.  And  then  the  priest  of  Saint-Pierre  aux  Boeufs 
came  several  times  to  see  his  churchwarden's  son,  and  these  i 
visits  made  the  causes  of  Christophe's  condition  even  more 
inexplicable. 

The  old  furrier,  who  had  a  plan  of  his  own,  replied 
evasively  when  his  fellows  of  the  guild,  traders,  and  friends 
spoke  of  his  son : — 


220  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDIOI 

"I  am  Yery  happy,  neighbor,  to  have  been  able  to  save  him! 
You  know!  it  is  well  not  to  put  your  finger  between  the 
wood  and  the  bark.  My  son  put  his  hand  to  the  stake  and 
took  out  fire  enough  to  bum  my  house  down ! — They  imposed 
on  his  youth,  and  we  citizens  never  get  anything  but  scorn 
and  harm  by  hanging  on  to  the  great.  This  quite  determines 
me  to  make  a  lawyer  of  my  boy;  the  law  courts  will  teach 
him  to  weigh  his  words  and  deeds.  The  young  Queen,  who  is 
now  in  Scotland,  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  it ;  but  perhaps 
Christophe  was  very  imprudent  too.  I  went  through  terrible 
grief. — All  this  will  probably  lead  to  my  retiring  from  busi- 
ness; I  will  never  go  to  Court  any  more.  My  son  has  had 
enough  of  the  Eef ormation  now ;  it  has  left  him  with  broken 
arms  and  legs.    But  for  Ambroise,  where  should  I  be  ?'* 

Thanks  to  these  speeches  and  to  his  prudence,  a  report 
was  spread  in  the  neighborhood  that  Christophe  no  longer 
followed  the  creed  of  Colas.  Every  one  thought  it  quite 
natural  that  the  old  Syndic  should  wish  to  see  his  son  a 
lawyer  in  the  Parlement,  and  thus  the  priest's  calls  seemed 
quite  a  matter  of  course.  In  thinking  of  the  old  man's  woes, 
no  one  thought  of  his  ambition,  which  would  have  been 
deemed  monstrous. 

The  young  lawyer,  who  had  spent  ninety  days  on  the  bed 
put  up  for  him  in  the  old  sitting-room,  had  only  been  out  of  it 
for  a  week  past,  and  still  needed  the  help  of  crutches  to  enable 
him  to  walk.  Babette's  affection  and  his  mother's  tenderness 
had  touched  Christophe  deeply ;  still,  having  him  in  bed,  the 
two  women  lectured  him  soundly  on  the  subject  of  religion. 
President  de  Thou  came  to  see  his  godson,  and  was  most 
paternal.  Christophe,  as  a  pleader  in  the  Parlement,  ought 
to  be  a  Catholic,  he  would  be  pledged  to  it  by  his  oath;  and 
the  President,  who  never  seemed  to  doubt  the  young  man's 
orthodoxy,  added  these  important  words : 

"You  have  been  cruelly  tested,  my  boy.  I  myself  know 
nothing  of  the  reasons  Messieurs  de  Guise  had  for  treating 
you  thus;  but  now  I  exhort  you  to  live  quietly  henceforth, 
and  not  to  interfere  in  broils,  for  the  favor  of  the  King  and 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDIOI  221 

Queen  will  not  be  shown  to  such  as  brew  storms.  You  are 
not  a  great  enough  man  to  drive  a  bargain  with  the  King, 
like  the  Duke  and  the  Cardinal.  If  you  want  to  be  councillor 
in  the  Parlement  some  day,  you  can  only  attain  that  high 
office  by  serious  devotion  to  the  cause  of  Koyalty." 

However,  neither  Monsieur  de  Thou's  visit,  nor  Babette's 
charms,  nor  the  entreaties  of  Mademoiselle  Lecamus  his 
mother,  had  shaken  the  faith  of  the  Protestant  martyr. 
Christophe  clung  all  the  more  stoutly  to  his  religion  in  pro- 
portion to  what  he  had  suffered  for  it. 

"My  father  will  never  allow  me  to  marry  a  heretic,"  said 
Babette  in  his  ear. 

Christophe  replied  only  with  tears,  which  left  the  pretty 
girl  speechless  and  thoughtful. 

Old  Lecamus  maintained  his  dignity  as  a  father  and  a 
Syndic,  watched  his  son,  and  said  little.  The  old  man,  hav- 
ing got  back  his  dear  Christophe,  was  almost  vexed  with 
himself,  and  repentant  of  having  displayed  all  his  affection 
for  his  only  son ;  but  secretly  he  admired  him.  At  no  time  in 
his  life  had  the  furrier  pulled  so  many  wires  to  gain  his  ends ; 
for  he  could  see  the  ripe  harvest  of  the  crop  sown  with  so 
much  toil,  and  wished  to  gather  it  all. 

A  few  days  since  he  had  had  a  long  conversation  with 
Christophe  alone,  hoping  to  discover  the  secret  of  his  son's 
tenacity.  Christophe,  who  was  not  devoid  of  ambition,  be- 
lieved in  the  Prince  de  Conde.  The  Prince's  generous  speech 
— which  was  no  more  than  the  stock-in-trade  of  princes — 
was  stamped  on  his  heart.  He  did  not  know  that  Conde  had 
wished  him  at  the  devil  at  the  moment  when  he  bid  him  suchi 
a  touching  farewell  through  the  bars  of  his  prison  at  Orleans.. 

"A  Gascon  would  have  understood,"  the  Prince  had  said  to 
himself. 

And  in  spite  of  his  admiration  for  the  Prince,  Christophe 
cherished  the  deepest  respect  for  Catherine,  the  great  Queen 
who  had  explained  to  him  in  a  look  that  she  was  compelled 
by  necessity  to  sacrifice  him,  and  then,  during  his  torture, 
had  conveyed  to  him  in  another  glance  an  unlimited  promise 
by  an  almost  imperceptible  tear. 


222  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

During  the  deep  calm  of  the  ninety  days  and  nights  he 
had  spent  in  recovering,  the  newly-made  lawyer  thought  over 
the  events  at  Blois  and  at  Orleans.  He  weighed,  in  spite  of 
himself,  it  may  be  said,  the  influence  of  these  two  patrons; 
he  hesitated  between  the  Queen  and  the  Prince.  He  had 
certainly  done  more  for  Catherine  than  for  the  Eef orraation ; 
and  the  young  man's  heart  and  mind,  of  course,  went  forth, 
to  the  Queen,  less  by  reason  of  this  difference  than  because 
she  was  a  woman.  In  such  a  case  a  man  will  always  found 
his  hopes  on  a  woman  rather  than  on  a  man. 

"I  immolated  myself  for  her — what  will  she  not  do 
for  me  ?" 

This  was  the  question  he  almost  involuntarily  asked  himself 
as  he  recalled  the  tone  in  which  she  had  said,  "My  poor  boy !" 

It  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  the  pitch  of  self-consciousness 
reached  by  a  man  alone  and  sick  in  bed.  Everything,  even 
the  care  of  which  he  is  the  object,  tends  to  make  him  think 
of  himself  alone.  By  exaggerating  the  Prince  de  Conde's 
obligations  to  him,  Christophe  looked  forward  to  obtaining 
some  post  at  the  Court  of  Navarre.  The  lad,  a  novice  still 
in  politics,  was  all  the  more  forgetful  of  the  anxieties  which 
absorb  party  leaders,  and  of  the  swift  rush  of  men  and  events 
which  overrule  them,  because  he  lived  almost  in  solitary  im- 
prisonment in  that  dark  parlor.  Every  party  is  bound  to  be 
ungrateful  when  it  is  fighting  for  dear  life ;  and  when  it  has 
won  the  day,  there  are  so  many  persons  to  be  rewarded,  that 
it  is  ungrateful  still.  The  rank  and  file  submit  to  this 
oblivion,  but  the  captains  turn  against  the  new  master  who 
for  so  long  has  marched  as  their  equal. 

Christophe,  the  only  person  to  remember  what  he  had  suf- 
fered, already  reckoned  himself  as  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the 
Eeformation  by  considering  himself  as  one  of  its  martyrs. 
Lecamus,  the  old  wolf  of  trade,  acute  and  clear-sighted,  had 
guessed  his  son's  secret  thoughts ;  indeed,  all  his  manoeuvring 
was  based  on  the  very  natural  hesitancy  that  possessed  the 
lad. 

"Would  not  it  be  fine,"  he  haxi  said  the  day  before  to 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  228 

Babette,  "to  be  the  wife  of  a  Councillor  to  the  Parlement; 
you  would  be  addressed  as  madame." 

"You  are  crazy,  neighbor,"  said  Lallier.  "In  the  first 
place,  where  would  you  find  ten  thousand  crowns  a  year  in 
landed  estate,  which  a  Councillor  must  show,  and  from  whom 
could  you  purchase  a  connection?  The  Queen-mother  and 
Eegent  would  have  to  give  all  her  mind  to  it  to  get  your  son 
into  the  Parlement;  and  he  smells  of  the  stake  too  strongly 
io  be  admitted." 

"What  would  you  give,  now,  to  see  your  daughter  a  Coun- 
cillor's wife  ?" 

"You  want  to  sound  the  depth  of  my  purse,  you  old  fox !" 
exclaimed  Lallier. 

Councillor  to  the  Parlement !  The  words  distracted  Chris- 
tophe's  brain. 

Long  after  the  conference  was  over,  one  morning  when 
Christophe  sat  gazing  at  the  river,  which  reminded  him  of 
the  scene  that  was  the  beginning  of  all  this  story,  of  the 
Prince  de  Conde,  la  Eenaudie,  and  Chaudieu,  of  his  journey 
to  Blois,  and  of  all  he  hoped  for,  the  Syndic  came  to  sit 
down  by  his  son  with  ill-disguised  glee  under  an  affectation 
of  solemnity. 

"My  boy,"  said  he,  "after  what  took  place  between  you 
and  the  heads  of  the  riot  at  Amboise,  they  owed  you  so 
much  that  your  future  might  veiy  well  be  cared  for  by  the 
House  of  Navarre." 

"Yes,"  replied  Christophe. 

"Well,"  his  father  went  on,  "I  have  definitely  applied  for 
permission  for  you  to  purchase  a  legal  business  in  Beam.  Our 
good  friend  Pare  undertook  to  transmit  the  letters  I  wrote 
in  your  name  to  the  Prince  de  Conde  and  Queen  Jeanne. — 
Here,  read  this  reply  from  Monsieur  de  Pibrac,  Viee-Chan- 
cellor  of  Navarre : — 

"To  Master  Lecamus,  Syndic  of  the  GuUd  of  Furriers. 
"His  Highness  the  Prince  de  Conde  bids  me  express  to  you 
his  regret  at  being  unable  to  do  anything  for  his  fellow- 


224  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

prisoner  in  the  Tour  de  Saint- Aignan,  whom  he  remembers 
well,  and  to  whom,  for  the  present,  he  offers  the  place  of 
man-at-arms  in  his  own  company,  where  he  will  have  the 
opportunity  of  making  his  way  as  a  man  of  good,  heart — 
which  he  is. 

"The  Queen  of  Navarre  hopes  for  an  occasion  of  reward- 
ing Master  Christophe,  and  will  not  fail. 

"And  with  this,  Monsieur  le  Syndic,  I  pray  God  have  you| 
in  His  keeping.  Pibrac, 

"Chancellor  of  Navarre. 

"Nerac!  Pibrac!  Crac!"  cried  Babette.  "There  is  noth- 
ing to  be  got  out  of  these  Gascons ;  they  think  only  of  them- 
selves." 

Old  Lecainus  was  looking  at  his  son  with  ironical  amuse- 
ment. 

"And  he  wants  to  set  a  poor  boy  on  horseback  whose 
knees  and  ankles  were  pounded  up  for  him!"  cried  the 
mother.    "What  a  shameful  mockery !" 

"I  do  not  seem  to  see  you  as  a  Councillor  in  Navarre,"  said 
the  old  furrier. 

"I  should  like  to  know  what  Queen  Catherine  would  do 
for  me  if  I  petitioned  her,"  said  Christophe,  much  crest- 
fallen. 

"She  made  no  promises,"  said  the  old  merchant,  "but  I 
am  sure  she  would  not  make  a  fool  of  you,  and  would  re- 
member your  sufferings.  Still,  how  could  she  make  a  coun- 
cillor-at-law  of  a  Protestant  citizen  ?" 

"But  Christophe  has  never  abjured !"  exclaimed  Babette. 
"He  may  surely  keep  his  own  secret  as  to  his  religious  opin- 
ions." 

"The  Prince  de  Conde  would  be  less  scornful  of  a  Coun-. 
cillor  to  the  Parlement  of  Paris,"  said  Lecamus. 

"A  Councillor,  father!   Is  it  possible?" 

"Yes,  if  you  do  nothing  to  upset  what  I  am  managing  for 
you.    My  neighbor  Lallier  here  is  ready  to  pay  two  hundred 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  225 

thousand  livres,  if  I  add  as  much  again,  for  the  purchase  of 
a  fine  estate  entailed  on  the  heirs  male,  which  we  will  hand 
over  to  you." 

"And  I  will  add  something  more  for  a  house  in  Paris,"  said 
Lallier. 

'"Well,  Christophe?"  said  Babette. 

"You  are  talking  without  the  Queen,"  replied  the  young 
lawyer. 

Some  days  after  this  bitter  mortification,  an  apprentice 
brought  this  brief  note  to  Christophe: 

"Chaudieu  wishes  to  see  his  son." 

"Bring  him  in,"  said  Christophe. 

"0  my  saint  and  martyr!"  cried  the  preacher,  embrac- 
ing the  young  man,  "have  you  got  over  your  sufferings  ?" 

"Yes,  thanks  to  Pare." 

"Thanks  to  God,  who  gave  you  strength  to  endure  them! 
But  what  is  this  I  hear?  You  have  passed  as  a  pleader,  you 
have  taken  the  oath  of  fidelity,  you  have  confessed  the  Whore, 
the  Catholic,  Apostolic,  Eomish  Church." 

"My  father  insisted." 

"But  are  we  not  to  leave  father  and  mother  and  children 
and  wife  for  the  sacred  cause  of  Calvinism,  and  to  suffer 
all  things? — Oh,  Christophe,  Calvin,  the  great  Calvin,  the 
whole  party,  the  whole  world,  the  future  counts  on  your 
courage  and  your  greatness  of  soul  I    We  want  your  life." 

There  is  this  strange  feature  in  the  mind  of  man:  the 
most  devoted,  even  in  the  act  of  devoting  himself,  always 
builds  up  a  romance  of  hope  even  in  the  most  perilous  crisis. 
Thus,  when  on  the  river  under  the  Pont  au  Change,,  the 
prince,  the  soldier,  and  the  preacher  had  required  Chris- 
tophe to  carry  to  Queen  Catherine  the  document  which,  if 
discovered,  would  have  cost  him  his  life,  the  boy  had  trusted 
ito  his  wit,  to  chance,  to  his  perspicacity,  and  had  boldly 
marched  on  between  the  two  formidable  parties — the  Guises 
and  the  Queen — who  had  so  nearly  crushed  him.  While  in 
the  torture-chamber  he  still  had  said  to  himfielf,  "I  shdl  liv» 
through  it — it  is  only  gain  I" 


526  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

But  at  this  brutal  command,  "Die!"  to  a  man  who  wag 
still  helpless,  hardly  recovered  from  the  injuries  he  had  suf- 
fered, and  who  clung  all  the  more  to  life  for  having  seen 
death  so  near,  it  was  impossible  to  indulge  in  any  such  illu- 
sions. 

Christophe  calmly  asked,  "What  do  you  want  of  me?" 

"To  fire  a  pistol  bravely,  as  Stuart  fired  at  Minard." 

"At  whom?" 

"The  Due  de  Guise.'' 

"Assassination  ?" 

"Revenge! — Have  you  forgotten  the  hundred  gentlemen 
massacre  on  one  scaffold !  A  child,  little  d'Aubigne,  said  as 
he  saw  the  butchery,  'They  have  beheaded  all  France.' " 

"We  are  to  take  blows  and  not  to  return  them,  is  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Gospel,"  replied  Christophe.  "If  we  are  to  imitate 
the  Catholics,  of  what  use  is  it  to  reform  the  Church  ?" 

"Oh,  Christophe,  they  have  made  a  lawyer  of  you,  and  you 
argue !"  said  Chaudieu. 

"No,  my  friend,"  the  youth  replied.  "But  principles  are 
ungrateful,  and  you  and  yours  will  only  be  the  playthings 
of  the  House  of  Bourbon." 

"Oh,  Christophe,  if  you  had  only  heard  Calvin,  you  would 
know  that  we  can  turn  them  like  a  glove !  The  Bourbons  are 
the  glove,  and  we  the  hand." 

"Read  this,"  said  Christophe,  handing  Pibrac's  letter  to 
the  minister, 

"Alas,  boy !  you  are  ambitious ;  you  can  no  longer  sacrifice 
yourself;"  and  Chaudieu  went  away. 

Not  long  after  this  visit,  Christophe,  with  the  families 
i;f  Lallier  and  Lecamus,  had  met  to  celebrate  the  plighting 
of  Babette  and  Christophe  in  the  old  parlor,  whence  Chris- 
tophe's  couch  was  now  removed,  for  he  could  climb  the  stairs 
now,  and  was  beginning  to  drag  himself  about  without 
crutches.  It  was  nine  in  the  evening,  and  they  waited  for 
Ambroise  Pare.  The  family  notary  was  sitting  at  a  table 
covered  with  papers.    The  furrier  was  selling  his  house  and 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  227 

business  to  his  head-clerk,  who  was  to  pay  forty  thousand 
livres  down  for  the  house,  and  to  mortgage  it  as  security  for 
the  stock-in-trade,  besides  paying  twenty  tliousand  livres  on 
account. 

Lecamus  had  purchased  for  his  son  a  magnificent  house 
in  the  Eue  de  Saint-Pierre  aux  Boeufs,  built  of  stone  by 
Phiiibert  de  I'Orme,  as  a  wedding  gift.  The  Syndic  had 
also  spent  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  livres  out  of  his 
fortune,  Lallier  paying  an  equal  sum,  for  the  acquisition 
of  a  fine  manor  and  estate  in  Picardy,  for  which  five  hun- 
dred thousand  livres  were  asked.  This  estate  being  a  de- 
pendence of  the  Crown,  letters  patent  from  the  King — called 
letters  of  rescript — were  necessary,  besides  the  payment  of 
considerable  fines  and  fees.  Thus  the  actual  marriage  was  to 
be  postponed  till  the  royal  signature  could  be  obtained. 

Though  the  citizens  of  Paris  had  obtained  the  right  of  pur- 
chasing manors  and  lands,  the  prudence  of  the  Privy  Coun- 
cil had  placed  certain  restrictions  on  the  transfer  of  lands 
belonging  to  the  Crown;  and  the  estate  on  which  Lecamus 
had  had  his  eye  for  the  last  ten  years  was  one  of  these.  Am- 
broise  had  undertaken  to  produce  the  necessary  permission 
this  very  evening.  Old  Lecamus  went  to  and  fro  between  the 
sitting-room  and  the  front  door  with  an  impatience  that 
showed  the  eagerness  of  his  ambition. 

At  last  Ambroise  appeared. 

"My  good  friend !"  exclaimed  the  surgeon  in  a  great  fuss, 
and  looking  at  the  supper-table,  "what  is  your  napery  hke? 
— Very  good. — Now  bring  waxlights,  and  make  haste,  make 
haste.    Bring  out  the  best  of  everything  you  have." 

"What  is  the  matter  ?"  asked  the  priest  of  Saint-Pierre  aux 
Boeufs. 

"The  Queen-mother  and  the  King  are  coming  to  sup  with 
you,"  replied  the  surgeon.  "The  Queen  and  King  expect  to 
meet  here  an  old  Councillor,  whose  business  is  to  be  sold  to 
Christophe,  and  Monsieur  de  Thou,  who  has  managed  the 
bargain.  Do  not  look  as  if  you  expected  them;  I  stole  out 
of  the  Louvre." 


228  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

In  an  instant  all  were  astir.  Christophe's  mother  and 
Babette's  aunt  trotted  about  in  all  the  flurry  of  housewives 
taken  by  surprise.  In  spite  of  the  confusion  into  which  the 
announcement  had  thrown  the  party,  preparations  were  made 
with  miraculous  energy.  Christophe,  amazed,  astounded, 
overpowered  by  such  condescension,  stood  speechless,  looking! 
on  at  all  the  bustle. 

"The  Queen  and  the  King  here !"  said  the  old  mother, 

"The  Queen?"  echoed  Babette;  'T)ut  what  for,  what  to 
do?" 

Within  an  hour  everything  was  altered;  the  old  room  was 
smartened  up,  the  table  shone.  A  sound  of  horses  was  heard 
in  the  street.  The  gleam  of  torches  carried  by  the  mounted 
escort  brought  all  the  neighbors'  noses  to  the  windows.  The 
rush  was  soon  over;  no  one  was  left  under  the  arcade  but 
the  Queen-mother  and  her  son,  King  Charles  IX.,  Charles 
de  Gondi,  Master  of  the  Wardrobe,  and  tutor  to  the  King; 
Monsieur  de  Thou,  the  retiring  Councillor;  Pinard,  Secre- 
tary of  State,  and  two  pages. 

"Good  folks,"  said  the  Queen  as  she  went  in,  "the  King, 
my  son,  and  I  have  come  to  sign  the  marriage  contract  of 
our  furrier's  son,  but  on  condition  that  he  remains  a  Catholic. 
Only  a  Catholic  can  serve  in  the  Parlement,  only  a  Catholic 
can  own  lands  dependent  on  the  Crown,  only  a  Catholic 
can  sit  at  table  with  the  King — what  do  you  say,  Pinard  ?" 

The  Secretary  of  State  stepped  forward,  holding  the  let- 
ters patent. 

"If  we  are  not  all  Catholics  here,"  said  the  little  King, 
"Pinard  will  throw  all  the  papers  into  the  fire ;  but  we  are  all 
Catholics?"  he  added,  looking  round  proudly  enough  at  the 
company. 

"Yes,  Sire,"  said  Christophe  Lecamus,  bending  the  knee, 
'jiot  without  difficulty,  and  kissing  the  hand  the  young  King 
held  out  to  him. 

Queen  Catherine,  who  also  held  out  her  hand  to  Chris- 
tophe, pulled  him  up  rather  roughly,  and  leading  him  into 
a  corner,  said: 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  22» 

'^Understand,  boy,  no  subterfuges!  We  are  playing  an 
honest  game?" 

"Yes,  madame,"  he  said,  dazzled  by  this  splendid  reward 
and  by  the  honor  the  grateful  Queen  had  done  him. 

'^ell,  then.  Master  Lecarnus,  the  King,  my  son,  and  I 
permit  you  to  purchase  the  offices  and  appointments  of  this 
good  man  Groslay,  Councillor  to  the  Parlement,  who  is 
here,"  said  the  Queen.  "I  hope,  young  man,  that  you  will 
follow  in  the  footsteps  of  your  Lord  President." 

De  Thou  came  forward  and  said: 

"I  will  answer  for  him,  madame." 

*^ery  well,  then  proceed,  notary,"  said  Pinard. 

"Since  the  King,  our  master,  does  us  the  honor  of  signing 
my  daughter's  marriage-contract,"  cried  Lallier,  "I  will  pay 
the  whole  price  of  the  estate." 

"The  ladies  may  be  seated,"  said  the  young  King  gra- 
ciously. "As  a  wedding  gift  to  the  bride,  with  my  mother's 
permission,  I  remit  my  fines  and  fees." 

Old  Lecamus  and  Lallier  fell  on  their  knees  and  kissed  the 
boy-King's  hand. 

"By  Heaven,  Sire,  what  loads  of  money  these  citizens 
have !"  said  Gondi  in  his  ear. 

And  the  young  King  laughed. 

"Their  Majesties  being  so  graciously  inclined,"  said  old 
Lecamus,  "will  they  allow  me  to  present  to  them  my  suc- 
cessor in  the  business,  and  grant  him  the  royal  patent  aa 
furrier  to  their  Majesties  ?" 

"Let  us  see  him,"  said  the  King,  and  Lecamus  brought 
forward  his  successor,  who  was  white  with  alarm. 

Old  Lecamus  was  shrewd  enough  to  offer  the  young  King 
a  silver  cup  which  he  had  bought  from  Benvenuto  Cellini 
when  he  was  staying  in  Paris  at  the  Tour  de  Nesle,  at  a  cost 
of  not  less  than  two  thousand  crowns. 

"Oh,  mother !  what  a  fine  piece  of  work !"  cried  the  youth, 
lifting  the  cup  by  its  foot. 

"It  is  Florentine,"  said  Catherine. 

"Pardon  me,  madame,"  said  Lecamus;  "it  was  made  in 
—16 


280  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

France,  though  by  a  Florentine.  If  it  had  come  from  Flor- 
ence, it  should  have  been  the  Queen's;  but  being  made  in 
France,  it  is  the  King's." 

"I  accept  it,  my  friend,"  cried  Charles  IX.,  "and  hence- 
forth I  drink  out  of  it." 

"It  is  good  enough,"  the  Queen  remarked,  "to  be  included 
among  the  Crown  treasure." 

"And  you.  Master  Ambroise,"  she  went  on  in  an  under- 
tone, turning  to  the  surgeon,  and  pointing  to  Christophe, 
*Tiave  you  cured  him  ?  Will  he  walk  ?" 

"He  will  fly,"  said  the  surgeon,  with  a  smile.  'Tou  have 
stolen  him  from  us  very  cleverly !" 

"The  abbey  will  not  starve  for  lack  of  one  monk !"  replied 
the  Queen,  in  the  frivolous  tone  for  which  she  has  been 
blamed,  but  which  lay  only  on  the  surface. 

The  supper  was  cheerful;  the  Queen  thought  Babette 
pretty,  and,  like  the  great  lady  she  was,  she  slipped  a  diamond 
ring  on  the  girl's  finger  in  compensation  for  the  value  of  the 
silver  cup. 

King  Charles  IX.,  who  afterwards  was  perhaps  rather  too 
fond  of  thus  invading  his  subjects'  homes,  supped  with  a 
good  appetite;  then,  on  a  word  from  his  new  tutor,  who  had 
been  instructed,  it  is  said,  to  efface  the  virtuous  teaching  of 
Cypierre,  he  incited  the  President  of  Parlement,  the  old  re- 
tired councillor,  the  Secretary  of  State,  the  priest,  the  notary, 
and  the  citizens  to  drink  so  deep,  that  Queen  Catherine  rose 
to  go  at  the  moment  when  she  saw  that  their  high  spirits  were 
becoming  uproarious. 

As  the  Queen  rose,  Christophe,  his  father,  and  the  two 
women  took  up  tapers  to  light  her  as  far  as  the  door  of  the 
shop.  Then  Christophe  made  so  bold  as  to  pull  the  Queen's 
wide  sleeve  and  give  her  a  meaning  look.  Catherine  stopped, 
dismissed  the  old  man  and  the  women  with  a  wave  of  her 
hand,  and  said  to  the  young  man — "What  ?" 

"If  you  can  make  any  use  of  the  information,  madame," 
said  he,  speaking  close  to  the  Queen's  ear,  "I  can  tell  you  that 
assassins  are  plotting  against  the  Due  de  Guise's  life." 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  231 

'TTou  are  a  loyal  subject,"  said  Catherine  with  a  smile, 
"and  I  will  never  forget  you." 

She  held  out  her  hand,  famous  for  its  beauty,  drawing  off 
her  glove  as  a  mark  of  special  favor.  And  Christophe,  as 
he  kissed  that  exquisite  hand,  was  more  Koyalist  than  ever. 

"Then  I  shall  be  rid  of  that  wretch  without  my  having 
anything  to  do  with  it,"  was  her  reflection  as  she  put  on  her 
glove. 

She  mounted  her  mule  and  returned  to  the  Louvre  with 
her  two  pages. 

Christophe  drank,  but  he  was  gloomy;  Fare's  austere  face 
reproached  him  for  his  apostasy;  however,  later  events  justi- 
fied the  old  Syndic.  Christophe  would  certainly  never  have 
escaped  in  the  massacre  of  Saint-Bartholomew;  his  wealth 
and  lands  would  have  attracted  the  butchers.  History  has  re- 
corded the  cruel  fate  of  the  wife  of  Lallier's  successor,  a 
beautiful  woman,  whose  naked  body  remained  hanging  by  the 
hair  for  three  days  to  one  of  the  starlings  of  the  Pont  au 
Change.  Babette  could  shudder  then  as  she  reflected  that 
such  a  fate  might  have  been  hers  if  Christophe  had  remained 
a  Calvinist,  as  the  Keformers  were  soon  generally  called. 
Calvin's  ambition  was  fulfilled,  but  not  till  after  his  death. 

This  was  the  origin  of  the  famous  Lecamus  family  of  law- 
yers. Tallemant  des  Eeaux  was  mistaken  in  saying  they  had 
come  from  Picardy.  It  was  afterwards  to  the  interest  of  the 
Lecamus  family  to  refer  their  beginnings  to  the  time  when 
they  had  acquired  their  principal  estate,  situated  in  that 
province. 

Christophe's  son,  and  his  successor  under  Louis  XIII.,  was 
father  of  that  rich  President  Lecamus,  who  in  Louis  XIV.'s 
time  built  the  magnificept  mansion  which  divided  with  the 
Hotel  Lambert  the  admiration  of  Parisians  and  foreigners, 
and  which  is  certainly  one  of  the  finest  buildings  in  Paris. 
This  house  still  exists  in  the  Rue  de  Thorigny,  though  it  was 
pillaged  at  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution,  as  belonging  to 
Monsieur  de  Juigne,  Archbishog  of  Paris.   All  the  paintings 


282  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

were  then  defaced,  and  the  lodgers  who  have  since  dwelt  there 
have  still  further  damaged  it.  This  fine  residence,  earned 
in  the  old  house  in  the  Eue  de  la  Pelleterie,  still  shows  what 
splendid  results  were  then  the  outcome  of  family  spirit.  We 
may  be  allowed  to  doubt  whether  modern  individualism,  re- 
sulting from  the  repeated  equal  division  of  property,  wilJ/ 
ever  raise  such  edifices. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 


PART  11 

THE  EUGGIERl's  SECRET, 

Between  eleven  o'clock  and  midnight,  towards  the  end  of 
October  1573,  two  Florentines,  brothers,  Albert  de  Gondi, 
Marshal  of  France,  and  Charles  de  Gondi  la  Tour,  Master 
of  the  Wardrobe  to  King  Charles  IX.,  were  sitting  at  the  top 
of  a  house  in  the  Rue  Saint-Honore  on  the  edge  of  the  gutter. 
Such  gutters  were  made  of  stone;  they  ran  along  below  the 
roof  to  catch  the  rain-water,  and  were  pierced  here  and  there 
with  long  gargoyles  carved  in  the  form  of  grotesque  creatures 
with  gaping  jaws.  In  spite  of  the  zeal  of  the  present  genera- 
tion in  the  destruction  of  ancient  houses,  there  were  still  in 
Paris  many  such  gutter-spouts  when,  not  long  since,  the 
police  regulations  as  to  waste-pipes  led  to  their  disappear- 
ance. A  few  sculptured  gutters  are  still  to  be  seen  in  the 
Saint- Antoine  quarter,  where  the  low  rents  have  kept  owners 
from  adding  rooms  in  the  roof. 

It  may  seem  strange  that  two  persons  invested  with  such 
important  functions  should  have  chosen  a  perch  more  be- 
fitting cats.  But  to  any  one  who  has  hunted  through  the  his- 
torical curiosities  of  that  time,  and  seen  how  many  interests 
were  complicated  about  the  throne,  so  that  the  domestic  poli*" 
tics  of  France  can  only  be  compared  to  a  tangled  skein  ofi 
thread,  these  two  Florentines  are  really  cats,  and  quite  in 
their  place  in  the  gutter.  Their  devotion  to  the  person  of 
Catherine  de'  Medici,  who  had  transplanted  them  to  the 
French  Court,  required  them  to  shirk  none  of  the  conse- 
quences of  their  intrusion  there. 

But  to  explain  how  and  why  these  two  courtiers  were 
perched  up  there,  it  wiU  be  necessary  to  relate  a  scene  which 


234  •   ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

had  just  taken  place  within  a  stone's  throw  of  this  gutter,  at 
the  Louvre,  in  the  fine  brown  room — which  is,  perhaps,  all 
that  remains  of  Henri  II.'s  apartments — where  the  Court 
was  in  attendance  after  supper  on  the  two  Queens  and  the 
King.  At  that  time  middle-class  folk  supped  at  six  o'clock, 
and  men  of  rank  at  seven;  but  people  of  exquisite  fashion 
supped  between  eight  and  nine ;  it  was  the  meal  we  nowadays 
call  dinner. 

Some  people  have  supposed  that  etiquette  was  the  inven- 
tion of  Louis  XIV. ;  but  this  is  a  mistake ;  it  was  introduced 
into  France  by  Catherine  de'  Medici,  who  was  so  exacting 
that  the  Connetable  Anne  de  Montmorency  had  more  diffi- 
culty in  obtaining  leave  to  ride  into  the  courtyard  of  the 
Louvre  than  in  winning  his  sword,  and  even  then  the  permis- 
sion was  granted  only  on  the  score  of  his  great  age.  Eti- 
quette was  slightly  relaxed  under  the  first  three  Bourbon 
Kings,  but  assumed  an  Oriental  character  under  Louis  the 
Great,  for  it  was  derived  from  the  Lower  Empire,  which  bor- 
rowed it  from  Persia.  In  1573  not  only  had  very  few  per- 
sons a  right  to  enter  the  courtyard  of  the  Louvre  with  their 
attendants  and  torches,  just  as  in  Louis  XIV.'s  time  only 
dukes  and  peers  might  drive  under  the  porch,  but  the  func- 
tions which  gave  the  privilege  of  attending  their  Majesties 
after  supper  could  easily  be  counted.  The  Marechal  de  Ketz, 
whom  we  have  just  seen  keeping  watch  on  the  gutter,  once 
offered  a  thousand  crowns  of  that  day  to  the  clerk  of  the 
closet  to  get  speech  of  Henri  III.  at  an  hour  when  he  had 
no  right  of  entree.  And  how  a  certain  venerable  historian 
mocks  at  a  view  of  the  courtyard  of  the  chateau  of  Blois,  into 
which  the  draughtsman  introduced  the  figure  of  a  man  on 
horseback ! 

At  this  hour,  then,  there  were  at  the  Louvre  none  but  the 
most  eminent  persons  in  the  kingdom.  Queen  Elizabeth  of 
'Austria  and  her  mother-in-law,  Catherine  de'  Medici,  were 
seated  to  the  left  of  the  fireplace.  In  the  opposite  corner 
the  King,  sunk  in  his  armchair,  affected  an  apathy  excusable 
on  the  score  of  digestion,  for  he  had  eaten  like  a  prince  re- 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  235 

tnmed  from  hunting.  Possibly,  too,  lie  wished  to  avoid 
speech  in  the  presence  of  so  many  persons  whose  interest  it 
was  to  detect  his  thoughts. 

The  courtiers  stood,  hat  in  hand,  at  the  further  end  of  the 
room.  Some  conversed  in  undertones;  others  kept  an  eyr 
on  the  King,  hoping  for  a  glance  or  a  word.  One,  being  ad- 
dressed by  the  Queen-mother,  conversed  with  her  for  a  few 
minutes.  Another  would  be  so  bold  as  to  speak  a  word  to 
Charles  IX.,  who  replied  with  a  nod  or  a  short  answer.  A 
German  noble,  the  Count  of  Solern,  was  standing  in  the  chim- 
ney corner  by  the  side  of  Charles  V.'s  grand-daughter,  with 
whom  he  had  come  to  France.  Near  the  young  Queen, 
seated  on  a  stool,  was  her  lady-in-waiting,  the  Countess 
Fieschi,  a  Strozzi,  and  related  to  Catherine.  The  beautiful 
Madame  de  Sauves,  a  descendant  of  Jacques  Coeur,  and  mis- 
tress in  succession  of  the  King  of  Navarre,  of  the  King  of 
Poland,  and  of  the  Due  d'Alengon,  had  been  invited  to  sup- 
per, but  she  remained  standing,  her  husband  being  merely  a 
Secretary  of  State.  Behind  these  two  ladies  were  the  two 
Gondis,  talking  to  them.  They  alone  were  laughing  of  all 
the  dull  assembly.  Gondi,  made  Due  de  Eetz  and  Gentle- 
man of  the  Bedchamber,  since  obtaining  the  Marshal's  baton 
though  he  had  never  commanded  an  army,  had  been  sent  as 
the  King's  proxy  to  be  married  to  the  Queen  at  Spires.  This 
honor  plainly  indicated  that  he,  like  his  brother,  was  one  of 
the  few  persons  whom  the  King  and  Queen  admitted  to  a 
certain  familiarity. 

On  the  King's  side  the  most  conspicuous  figure  was  the 
Marechal  de  Tavannes,  who  was  at  Court  on  business ;  Neuf- 
ville  de  Villeroy,  one  of  the  shrewdest  negotiators  of  the 
time,  who  laid  the  foundation  of  the  fortunes  of  his  family; 
.Messieurs  de  Birague  and  de  Chiverni,  one  in  attendance  on 
[the  Queen-mother,  the  other  Chancellor  of  Anjou  and  of 
Poland,  who,  knowing  Catherine's  favoritism,  had  attached 
himself  to  Henry  III.,  the  brother  whom  Charles  IX.  re- 
garded as  an  enemy;  Strozzi,  a  cousin  of  Queen  Catherine's, 
and  a  few  more  gentlemen,  among  whom  were  to  be  noted 


a«  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

the  old  Cardinal  de  Lorraine,  and  his  nephew,  the  young 
Due  de  Guise,  both  very  much  kept  at  a  distance  by  Catherine 
and  by  the  King.  These  two  chiefs  of  the  Holy  Alliance, 
afterwards  known  as  the  League,  established  some  years  since 
with  Spain,  made  a  display  of  the  submission  of  servants  who 
await  their  opportunity  to  become  the  masters;  Catherine 
and  Charles  IX.  were  watching  each  other  with  mutual  at- 
tention. 

At  this  Court — as  gloomy  as  the  room  in  which  it  had 
assembled — each  one  had  reasons  for  sadness  or  absence  of 
mind.  The  young  Queen  was  enduring  all  the  torments  of 
jealousy,  and  disguised  them  ineffectually  by  attempting  to 
smile  at  her  husband,  whom  she  adored  as  a  pious  woman 
of  infinite  kindness.  Marie  Touchet,  Charles  IX.'s  only  mis- 
tress, to  whom  he  was  chivalrously  faithful,  had  come  home 
a  month  since  from  the  chateau  of  Fayet,  in  Dauphine, 
whither  she  had  retired  for  the  birth  of  her  child;  and  she 
had  brought  back  with  her  the  only  son  Charles  IX.  ever  had 
— Charles,  at  first  Comte  d'Auvergne,  and  afterwards  Due 
d'Angouleme. 

Besides  the  grief  of  seeing  her  rival  the  mother  of  the 
King's  son,  while  she  had  only  a  daughter,  the  poor  Queen 
was  enduring  the  mortification  of  complete  desertion.  Dur- 
ing his  mistress'  absence,  the  King  had  made  it  up  with  his 
wife  with  a  vehemence  which  history  mentions  as  one  of  the 
causes  of  his  death.  Thus  Marie  Touchet's  return  made  the 
pious  Austrian  princess  understand  how  little  her  husband's 
heart  had  been  concerned  in  his  love-making.  Nor  was  this 
the  only  disappointment  the  young  Queen  had  to  endure  in 
this  matter;  till  now  Catherine  de'  Medici  had  seemed  to 
be  her  friend;  but,  in  fact,  her  mother-in-law,  for  political 
ends,  had  encouraged  her  son's  infidelity,  and  preferred  to 
support  the  mistress  rather  than  the  wife.  And  this  is  the 
reason  why. 

When  Charles  IX.  first  confessed  his  passion  for  Marie 
Touchet,  Catherine  looked  with  favor  on  the  girl  for  rea- 
sons   affecting    her    own    prospects    of    dominion.     Marie 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  237 

Touchet  was  brought  to  Court  at  a  very  early  age,  at  the 
time  of  life  when  a  girl's  best  feelings  are  in  their  bloom; 
she  loved  the  King  passionately  for  his  own  sake.  Terrified 
at  the  gulf  into  which  ambition  had  overthrown  the  Duchesse 
de  Valentinois,  better  known  as  Diane  de  Poitiers,  she  was 
afraid  too,  no  doubt,  of  Queen  Catherine,  and  preferred 
happiness  to  splendor.  She  thought  perhaps  that  a  pair  of 
lovers  so  young  as  she  and  the  King  were  could  not  hold  their 
own  against  the  Queen-mother. 

And,  indeed,  Marie,  the  only  child  of  Jean  Touchet,  the 
lord  of  Beauvais  and  le  Quillard,  King's  Councillor,  and 
Lieutenant  of  the  Bailiwick  of  Orleans,  half-way  between  the 
citizen  class  and  the  lowest  nobility,  was  neither  altogether 
a  noble  nor  altogether  bourgeoise,  and  was  probably  ignorant 
of  the  objects  of  innate  ambition  aimed  at  by  the  Pisseleus 
and  the  Saint- Valliers,  women  of  family  who  were  struggling 
for  their  families  with  the  secret  weapons  of  love.  Marie 
Touchet,  alone,  and  of  no  rank,  spared  Catherine  de'  Medici 
the  annoyance  of  finding  in  her  son's  mistress  the  daughter 
of  some  great  house  who  might  have  set  up  for  her  rival. 

Jean  Touchet,  a  wit  in  his  day,  to  whom  some  poets  dedi- 
cated their  works,  wanted  nothing  of  the  Court.  Marie,  a 
young  creature,  with  no  following,  as  clever  and  well-in- 
formed as  she  was  simple  and  artless,  suited  the  Queen- 
mother  to  admiration,  and  won  her  warm  affection. 

In  point  of  fact,  Catherine  persuaded  the  Parlement  to 
acknowledge  the  son  which  Marie  Touchet  bore  to  the  King  in 
the  month  of  April,  and  she  granted  him  the  title  of  Comte 
d'Auvergne,  promising  the  King  that  she  would  leave  the  boy 
her  personal  estate,  the  Comtes  of  Auvergne  and  Lauraguais. 
Afterwards,  Marguerite,  Queen  of  Navarre,  disputed  the 
gift  when  she  became  Queen  of  France,  and  annulled  it ;  but 
later  still,  Louis  XIIL,  out  of  respect  to  the  Royal  blood  of 
the  Valois,  indemnified  the  Comte  d'Auvergne  by  making 
him  Due  d'Angouleme. 

Catherine  had  already  given  Marie  Touchet,  who  asked  for 
nothing,  the  manor  of  Belleville,  an  estate  without  a  title, 


288  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

near  Vincennes,  whither  she  came  when,  after  hunting,  the 
King  slept  at  that  Eoyal  residence.  Charles  IX.  spent  the 
greater  part  of  his  later  days  in  that  gloomy  fortress,  and, 
according  to  some  authors,  ended  his  days  there  as  Louis  XII. 
had  ended  his.  Though  it  was  very  natural  that  a  lover  so 
entirely  captivated  should  lavish  on  the  woman  he  adored 
fresh  proofs  of  affection  when  he  had  to  expiate  his  legiti- 
mate infidelities,  Catherine,  after  driving  her  son  back  to  his 
wife's  arms,  certainly  pleaded  for  Marie  Touchet  as  women, 
can,  and  had  won  the  King  back  to  his  mistress  again. 
Whatever  could  keep  Charles  IX.  employed  in  anything  but 
politics  was  pleasing  to  Catherine;  and  the  kind  intentions 
she  expressed  towards  this  child  for  the  moment  deceived 
Charles  IX.,  who  was  beginning  to  regard  her  as  his  enemy. 

The  motives  on  which  Catherine  acted  in  this  business 
escaped  the  discernment  of  the  Queen,  who,  according  to 
Brantome,  was  one  of  the  gentlest  Queens  that  ever  reigned, 
and  who  did  no  harm  nor  displeasure  to  any  one,  even  read- 
ing her  Hours  in  secret.  But  this  innocent  Princess  began 
to  perceive  what  gulfs  yawn  round  a  throne,  a  terrible  dis- 
covery which  might  well  make  her  feel  giddy;  and  some  still 
worse  feeling  must  have  inspired  her  reply  to  one  of  her 
ladies,  who,  at  the  King's  death,  observed  to  her  that  if  she 
had  had  a  son,  she  would  be  Queen-mother  and  Eegent : 

"Ah,  God  be  praised  that  He  never  gave  me  a  son !  What 
would  have  come  of  it?  Tlie  poor  child  would  have  been 
robbed,  as  they  tried  to  rob  the  King  my  husband,  and  I 
should  have  been  the  cause  of  it. — God  has  had  mercy  on 
the  kingdom,  and  has  ordered  everything  for  the  best." 

This  Princess,  of  whom  Brantome  thinks  he  has  given  an 
ample  description  when  he  had  said  that  she  had  a  com- 
plexion of  face  as  fine  and  delicate  as  that  of  the  ladies  of 
her  Court,  and  very  pleasing,  and  that  she  had  a  beautiful 
shape  though  but  of  middle  height,  was  held  of  small  ac- 
count at  the  Court;  and  the  King's  state  affording  her  an 
excuse  for  her  double  grief,  her  demeanor  added  to  the 
gloomy  hues  of  a  picture  to  which  a  young  Queen  less  cruelly 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  239 

stricken  than  she  was  might  have  given  some  brightness.  The 
pious  Elizabeth  was  at  this  crisis  a  proof  of  the  fact  that 
qualities  which  add  lustre  to  a  woman  in  ordinary  life  may 
be  fatal  in  a  Queen.  A  Princess  who  did  not  devote  her  whole 
night  to  prayer  would  have  been  a  valuable  ally  for  Charles 
IX.,  who  found  no  help  either  in  his  wife  or  in  his  mistress. 

As  to  the  Queen-mother,  she  was  absorbed  in  watching 
the  King;  he  during  supper  had  made  a  display  of  high 
spirits,  which  she  interpreted  as  assumed  to  cloak  some  plan' 
against  herself.  Such  sudden  cheerfulness  was  in  too  strong 
a  contrast  to  the  fractious  humor  he  had  betrayed  by  his  per- 
sistency in  hunting,  and  by  a  frenzy  of  toil  at  his  forge,  where 
he  wrought  iron,  for  Catherine  to  be  duped  by  it.  Though 
she  could  not  guess  what  statesman  was  lending  himself  to 
these  schemes  and  plots — for  Charles  IX.  could  put  his 
mother's  spies  oflE  the  scent — Catherine  had  no  doubt  that 
some  plan  against  her  was  in  the  wind. 

The  unexpected  appearance  of  Tavannes,  arriving  at  the 
same  time  as  Strozzi,  whom  she  had  summoned,  had  greatly 
aroused  her  suspicions.  By  her  power  of  organization 
Catherine  was  superior  to  the  evolution  of  circumstances; 
but  against  sudden  violence  she  was  powerless. 

As  many  persons  know  nothing  of  the  state  of  affairs,  com- 
plicated by  the  multiplicity  of  parties  which  then  racked 
France,  each  leader  having  his  own  interests  in  view,  it  is 
needful  to  devote  a  few  words  to  describing  the  dangerous 
crisis  in  which  the  Queen-mother  had  become  entangled. 
And  as  this  will  show  Catherine  de'  Medici  in  a  new  light, 
it  will  carry  us  to  the  very  core  of  this  narrative. 

Two  words  will  fully  summarize  this  strange  woman,  so 
interesting  to  study,  whose  influence  left  such  deep  traces  on 
France.  These  two  words  are  dominion  and  astrology 
Catherine  de'  Medici  was  excessively  ambitious;  she  had  no 
passion  but  for  power.  Superstitious  and  a  fatalist,  as  many 
a  man  of  superior  mind  has  been,  her  only  sincere  belief  was 
in  the  occult  sciences.  Without  this  twofold  light,  she  must 
always  remain  misunderstood;  and  by  giving  the  first  place 


240  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

to  her  faith  in  astrology,  a  light  will  be  thrown  on  the  two 
philosophical  figures  of  this  Study. 

There  was  a  man  whom  Catherine  clung  to  more  than 
to  her  children;  this  man  was  Cosmo  Ruggieri.  She  gave 
him  rooms  in  her  Hotel  de  Soissons;  she  had  made  him  her 
chief  counselor,  instructing  him  to  tell  her  if  the  stars  ratified 
the  advice  and  common-sense  of  her  ordinary  advisers. 

Certain  curious  antecedent  facts  justified  the  power  which 
Euggieri  exerted  over  his  mistress  till  her  latest  breath.  One 
of  the  most  learned  men  of  the  sixteenth  century  was  be- 
yond doubt  the  physician  to  Catherine's  father,  Lorenzo  de' 
Medici,  Duke  of  TJrbino.  This  leech  was  known  as  Ruggiero 
the  elder  (vecchio  Ruggier,  and  in  French  Roger  VAncien, 
with  authors  who  have  written  concerning  alchemy),  to  dis- 
tinguish him  from  his  two  sons,  Lorenzo  Ruggiero,  called  the 
Great  by  writers  on  the  Cabala,  and  Cosmo  Ruggiero,  Cather- 
ine's astrologer,  also  known  as  Roger  by  various  French  his- 
torians. French  custom  altered  their  name  to  Ruggieri,  as 
it  did  Catherine's  from  Medici  to  Medicis. 

The  elder  Ruggieri,  then,  was  so  highly  esteemed  by  the 
family  of  the  Medici  that  the  two  Dukes,  Cosmo  and 
Lorenzo,  were  godfathers  to  his  sons.  In  his  capacity  of 
mathematician,  astrologer,  and  physician  to  the  Ducal 
House — three  offices  that  were  often  scarcely  distinguished — 
he  cast  the  horoscope  of  Catherine's  nativity,  in  concert  with 
Bazile,  the  famous  mathematician.  At  that  period  the  oc- 
cult sciences  were  cultivated  with  an  eagerness  which  may 
seem  surprising  to  the  sceptical  spirits  of  this  supremely 
analytical  age,  who  perhaps  may  find  in  this  historical  sketch 
the  germ  of  the  positive  sciences  which  flourish  in  the  nine- 
teenth century — bereft,  however,  of  the  poetic  grandeur 
brought  to  them  by  the  daring  speculators  of  the  sixteenth ; 
for  they,  instead  of  applying  themselves  to  industry,  exalted 
art  and  vivified  thought.  The  protection  universally  granted 
to  these  sciences  by  the  sovereigns  of  the  period  was  indeed 
justified  by  the  admirable  works  of  inventors  who,  starting 
from  the  search  for  the  magnum  opus,  arrived  at  astonishing 
results. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  241 

Never,  in  fact,  were  rulers  more  curious  for  these  mysteries. 
The  Fugger  family,  in  whom  every  modern  Lucullus  must 
recognize  his  chiefs,  and  every  banker  his  masters,  were  be- 
yond a  doubt  men  of  business,  not  to  be  caught  nodding ;  well, 
these  practical  men,  while  lending  the  capitalized  wealth 
of  Europe  to  the  sovereigns  of  the  sixteenth  century — who 
ran  into  debt  quite  as  handsomely  as  those  of  to-day — these 
illustrious  entertainers  of  Charies  V.  furnished  funds  for  thci 
retorts  of  Paracelsus.  At  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  cen-' 
tury,  Ruggieri  the  elder  was  the  head  of  that  secret  college 
whence  came  Cardan,  Nostradamus,  and  Agrippa,  each  in 
turn  physician  to  the  Valois;  and  all  the  astronomers,  as- 
trologers, and  alchemists  who  at  that  period  crowded  to  the 
Courts  of  the  Princes  of  Christendom,  and  who  found  especial 
welcome  and  protection  in  France  from  Catherine  de'  Medici. 

In  the  horoscope  cast  for  Catherine  by  Bazile  and  Rug- 
gieri the  elder,  the  principal  events  of  her  life  were  predicted 
with  an  accuracy  that  is  enough  to  drive  disbelievers  to  de- 
spair. This  forecast  announced  the  disasters  which,  during 
the  siege  of  Florence,  affected  her  early  life,  her  marriage 
with  a  Prince  of  France,  his  unexpected  accession  to  the 
throne,  the  birth  and  the  number  of  her  children.  Three  of 
her  sons  were  to  reign  in  succession,  her  two  daughters  were 
to  become  queens ;  all  were  to  die  childless.  And  this  was  all 
so  exactly  verified,  that  many  historians  have  regarded  it  as 
a  prophecy  after  the  event. 

It  is  well  known  that  Nostradamus  brought  to  the  chateau 
of  Chaumont,  whither  Catherine  went  at  the  time  of  la 
Renaudie's  conspiracy,  a  woman  who  had  the  gift  of  reading 
the  future.  Now  in  the  time  of  Francis  II.,  when  the 
Queen's  sons  were  still  children  and  in  good  health,  before 
Elizabeth  de  Valois  had  married  Philip  II.  of  Spain,  or  Mar- 
guerite de  Valois  had  married  Henri  de  Bourbon,  King  of 
Navarre,  Nostradamus  and  this  soothsayer  confirmed  all  the 
details  of  the  famous  horoscope. 

This  woman,  gifted  no  doubt  with  second-sight,  and  one 
of  the  extensive  association  of  indefatigable  inquirers  for 


242  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

the  magnum  opus,  though  her  life  has  evaded  the  ken  of 
history,  foretold  that  the  last  of  these  children  to  wear  the 
crown  would  perish  assassinated.  Having  placed  the  Queen 
in  front  of  a  magical  mirror  in  which  a  spinning-wheel  was 
reflected,  each  child's  face  appearing  at  the  end  of  a  spoke, 
the  soothsayer  made  the  wheel  turn,  and  the  Queen  counted 
the  number  of  turns.  Each  turn  was  a  year  of  a  reign. 
When  Henri  IV.  was  placed  on  the  wheel,  it  went  round 
twenty-two  times.  The  woman — some  say  it  was  a  man — 
told  the  terrified  Queen  that  Henri  de  Bourbon  would  cer- 
tainly be  King  of  France,  and  reign  so  many  years.  Queen 
Catherine  vowed  a  mortal  hatred  of  the  Bearnais  on  hearing 
that  he  would  succeed  the  last,  murdered  Valois. 

Curious  to  know  what  sort  of  death  she  herself  would  die, 
she  was  warned  to  beware  of  Saint-Germain.  Thenceforth, 
thinking  that  she  would  be  imprisoned  or  violently  killed  at 
the  chateau  of  Saint-Germain,  she  never  set  foot  in  it,  though, 
by  its  nearness  to  Paris,  it  was  infinitely  better  situated  for 
her  plans  than  those  where  she  took  refuge  with  the  King  in 
troubled  times.  When  she  fell  ill,  a  few  days  after  the  Due 
de  Guise  was  assassinated,  during  the  assembly  of  the  States- 
General  at  Blois,  she  asked  the  name  of  the  prelate  who  came 
to  minister  to  her.  She  was  told  that  his  name  was  Saint- 
Germain. 

"I  am  a  dead  woman !"  she  cried. 

She  died  the  next  day,  having  lived  just  the  number  of 
years  allotted  to  her  by  every  reading  of  her  horoscope. 

This  scene,  known  to  the  Cardinal  de  Lorraine,  who 
ascribed  it  to  the  Black  Art,  was  being  realized;  Francis  II. 
had  reigned  for  two  turns  only  of  the  wheel,  and  Charles  IX. 
was  achieving  his  last.  When  Catherine  spoke  these  strange 
words  to  her  son  Henri  as  he  set  out  for  Poland,  "You  will 
soon  return !"  they  must  be  ascribed  to  her  faith  in  the 
occult  sciences,  and  not  to  any  intention  of  poisoning 
Charles  IX.  Marguerite  de  France  was  now  Queen  of  N"a- 
varre;  Elizabeth  was  Queen  of  Spain;  the  Due  d'Anjou  was 
King  of  Poland. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  243 

Many  other  circumstances  contributed  to  confirm  Cather- 
ine's belief  in  the  occult  sciences.  On  the  eve  of  the  tourna- 
ment where  Henri  II.  was  mortally  wounded,  Catherine  saw 
the  fatal  thrust  in  a  dream.  Her  astrological  council,  con- 
sisting of  Nostradamus  and  the  two  Euggieri,  had  foretold 
the  King's  death.  History  has  recorded  Catherine's  earnest 
entreaties  that  he  should  not  enter  the  lists.  The  prognostic, 
and  the  dream  begotten  of  the  prognostic,  were  verified. 

The  chronicles  of  the  time  relate  another  and  not  less 
strange  fact.  The  courier  who  brought  news  of  the  victory 
of  Moncontour  arrived  at  night,  having  ridden  so  hard  that 
he  had  killed  three  horses.  The  Queen-mother  was  roused, 
and  said,  "I  knew  it." 

"In  fact,"  says  Brantome,  "she  had  the  day  before  an- 
nounced her  son's  success  and  some  details  of  the  fight." 

The  astrologer  attached  to  the  House  of  Bourbon  foretold 
that  the  youngest  of  the  Princes  in  direct  descent  from  Saint- 
Louis,  the  son  of  Antoine  de  Bourbon,  would  be  King  of 
France.  This  prophecy,  noted  by  Sully,  was  fulfilled  pre- 
cisely as  described  by  the  horoscope,  which  made  Henri  IV, 
remark  that  by  dint  of  lies  these  astrologers  hit  on  the  truth. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  most  of  the  clever  men  of  the  time  be- 
lieved in  the  far-reaching  "science  of  the  Magi,"  as  it  waa 
called  by  the  masters  of  astrology — or  sorcery,  as  it  waa 
termed  by  the  people — and  they  were  justified  by  the  verifica- 
tion of  horoscopes. 

It  was  for  Cosmo  Euggieri,  her  mathematician  and  as- 
trologer— her  wizard,  if  you  will — that  Catherine  erected  the 
pillar  against  the  corn-market  in  Paris,  the  only  remaining 
relic  of  the  Hotel  de  Soissons.  Cosmo  Euggieri,  like  con- 
fessors, had  a  mysterious  influence  which  satisfied  him,  as  it 
does  them.  His  secret  ambition,  too,  was  superior  to  that  of 
Tulgar  minds.  This  man,  depicted  by  romance-writers  and 
playwrights  as  a  mere  juggler,  held  the  rich  abbey  of  Saint-^ 
Mahe  in  Lower  Brittany,  and  had  refused  high  ecclesiastical 
preferment;  the  money  he  derived  in  abundance  from  the 
superstitious  mania  of  the  time  was  sufficient  for  his  priva{;« 


244  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

undertakings ;  and  the  Queen's  hand,  extended  to  protect  his 
head,  preserved  every  hair  of  it  from  harm. 

As  to  Catherine's  devouring  thirst  for  dominion,  her  de- 
sire to  acquire  power  was  so  great  that,  in  order  to  grasp  it, 
she  could  ally  herself  with  the  Guises,  the  enemies  of  the 
throne;  and  to  keep  the  reins  of  State  in  her  own  hands,  she 
adopted  every  means,  sacrificing  her  friends,  and  even  her 
children.  This  woman  could  not  live  without  the  intrigues  ofi 
rule,  as  a  gambler  cannot  live  without  the  excitement  of  play. 
Though  she  was  an  Italian  and  a  daughter  of  the  luxurious 
Medici,  the  Calvinists,  though  they  calumniated  her  plenti- 
fully, never  accused  her  of  having  a  lover. 

Appreciating  the  maxim  "Divide  to  reign,"  for  twelve  years 
she  had  been  constantly  playing  off  one  force  against  another. 
As  soon  as  she  took  the  reins  of  government  into  her  hands, 
she  was  compelled  to  encourage  discord  to  neutralize  the 
strength  of  two  rival  Houses  and  save  the  throne.  This 
necessary  system  justified  Henri  II.'s  foresight.  Catherine 
was  the  inventor  of  the  political  see-saw,  imitated  since  by 
every  Prince  who  has  found  himself  in  a  similar  position; 
she  upheld,  by  turns,  the  Calvinists  against  the  Guises,  and 
the  Guises  against  the  Calvinists.  Then,  after  using  the  two 
creeds  to  check  each  other  in  the  heart  of  the  people,  she 
set  the  Due  d'Anjou  against  Charles  IX.  After  using  things 
to  counteract  each  other,  she  did  the  same  with  men,  always 
keeping  the  clue  to  their  interests  in  her  own  hands. 

But  in  this  tremendous  game,  which  requires  the  head  of 
a  Louis  XI.  or  a  Louis  XVIII.,  the  player  inevitably  is  the 
object  of  hatred  to  all  parties,  and  is  condemned  to  win  un- 
failingly, for  one  lost  battle  makes  every  interest  his  enemy, 
until  indeed  by  dint  of  winning  he  ends  by  finding  no  one  to 
play  against  him.  The  greater  part  of  Charles  IX.'s  reign 
was  the  triumph  of  the  domestic  policy  carried  out  by  this 
wonderful  woman.  What  extraordinary  skill  Catherine  must 
have  brought  into  play  to  get  the  chief  command  of  the  army 
given  to  the  Due  d'Anjou,  under  a  brave  young  King  thirst- 
ing for  glory,  capable  and  .generous — and  in  the  face  of  the 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  245 

Conn^table  Anne  de  Montmorency!  The  Due  d'Anjou,  in 
the  eyes  of  all  Europe,  reaped  the  honors  of  Saint-Bartholo- 
mew's Day,  while  Charles  IX.  had  all  the  odium.  After  in- 
stilling into  the  King's  mind  a  spurious  and  covert  jealousy 
of  his  brother,  she  worked  upon  this  feeling  so  as  to  exhaust 
Charles  IX.'s  really  fine  qualities  in  the  intrigues  of  rivalry 
with  his  brother.  Cypierre,  their  first  tutor,  and  Amyot, 
Charles  IX.'s  preceptor,  had  made  their  royal  charge  so  noble 
a  man,  and  had  laid  the  foundations  of  so  great  a  reign,  that 
the  mother  hated  the  son  from  the  very  first  day  when  she 
feared  to  lose  her  power  after  having  conquered  it  with  so 
much  difficulty. 

These  facts  have  led  certain  historians  to  believe  that  the 
Queen-mother  had  a  preference  for  Henri  III. ;  but  her  be- 
havior at  this  juncture  proves  that  her  heart  was  absolutely 
indifferent  towards  her  children.  The  Due  d'Anjou,  when 
he  went  to  govern  Poland,  robbed  her  of  the  tool  she  needed 
to  keep  Charles  IX.'s  mind  fully  occupied  by  these  domestic 
intrigues,  which  had  hitherto  neutralized  his  energy  by  giving 
food  to  his  vehement  feelings.  Catherine  then  hatched  the 
conspiracy  of  la  Mole  and  Coconnas,  in  which  the  Due 
d'Alengon  had  a  hand ;  and  he,  when  he  became  Due  d'Anjou 
on  his  brother's  being  made  King,  lent  himself  very  readily 
to  his  mother's  views,  and  displayed  an  ambition  which  was 
encouraged  by  his  sister  Marguerite,  Queen  of  Navarre. 

This  plot,  now  rinened  to  the  point  which  Catherine  de- 
sired, aimed  at  putting  the  young  Duke  and  his  brother-in- 
law,  the  King  of  Navarre,  at  the  head  of  the  Calvinists,  at 
seizing  Charles  IX.,  thus  making  the  King,  who  had  no  heir, 
a  prisoner,  and  leaving  the  throne  free  for  the  Duke,  who 
proposed  to  establish  Calvinism  in  France.  Only  a  few  days 
before  his  death,  Calvin  had  won  the  reward  he  hoped  for — 
the  Reformed  creed  was  called  Calvinism  in  his  honor. 

La  Mole  and  Coconnas  had  been  arrested  fifty  days  before 

the  night  on  which  this  scene  opens,  to  be  beheaded  in  the 

following  April;  and  if  le  Laboureur  and  other  judicious 

writers  had  not  amply  proved  that  they  were  the  victims  of 
t— 17 


246  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

the  Queen-mother,  Cosmo  Ruggieri's  participation  in  the  af- 
fair would  be  enough  to  show  that  she  secretly  directed  it. 
This  man,  suspected  and  hated  by  the  King  for  reasons  which 
will  be  pi*esently  sufficiently  explained,  was  implicated  by  the 
inquiries.  He  admitted  that  he  had  furnished  la  Mole  with 
an  image  representing  the  King  and  stabbed  to  the  heart  with 
two  needles.  This  form  of  witchcraft  was  at  that  time  a 
capital  crime.  This  kind  of  bedevilment  (called  in  French 
envouier,  from  the  Latin  vultus,  it  is  said)  represented  one 
of  the  most  infernal  conceptions  that  hatred  could  imagine, 
and  the  word  admirably  expresses  the  magnetic  and  terrible 
process  carried  on,  in  occult  science,  by  constantly  active 
malevolence  on  the  person  devoted  to  death;  its  effects  being 
incessantly  suggested  by  the  sight  of  the  wax  figure.  The  law 
at  that  time  considered,  and  with  good  reason,  that  the  idea 
thus  embodied  constituted  high  treason.  Charles  IX.  desired 
the  death  of  the  Florentine;  Catherine,  more  powerful,  ob- 
tained from  the  Supreme  Court,  through  the  intervention  of 
her  Councillor  Lecamus,  that  her  astrologer  should  be  con- 
demned only  to  the  galleys.  As  soon  as  the  King  was  dead, 
Ruggieri  was  pardoned  by  an  edict  of  Henri  III.'s,  who  re- 
instated him  in  his  revenues  and  received  him  at  Court. 

Catherine  had,  by  this  time,  struck  so  many  blows  on  her 
son's  heart,  that  at  this  moment  he  was  only  anxious  to  shake 
off  the  yoke  she  had  laid  on  him.  Since  Marie  Touchet's  ab- 
sence, Charles  IX.,  having  nothing  to  occupy  him,  had  taken 
to  observing  very  keenly  all  that  went  on  around  him.  He  had 
set  very  skilful  snares  for  certain  persons  whom  he  had  trust- 
ed, to  test  their  fidelity.  He  had  watched  his  mother's  proceed- 
ings, and  had  kept  her  in  ignorance  of  his  own,  making  use 
of  all  the  faults  she  had  inculcated  in  order  t©  deceive  her. 
Eager  to  efface  the  feeling  of  horror  produced  in  France  by 
the  massacre  of  Saint-Bartholomew,  he  took  an  active  interest 
in  public  affairs,  presided  at  the  council,  and  tried  by  well- 
planned  measures  to  seize  the  reins  of  government.  Though 
the  Queen  might  have  attempted  to  counteract  her  son's  en- 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  247 

deavors  by  using  all  the  influence  that  maternal  authority 
and  her  habit  of  dominion  could  have  over  his  mind,  the 
downward  course  of  distrust  is  so  rapid  that,  at  the  first  leap, 
the  bon  had  gone  too  far  to  be  recalled. 

On  the  day  when  his  mother's  words  to  the  King  of  Poland 
were  repeated  to  Charles  IX.,  he  already  felt  so  ill  that  the 
most  hideous  notions  dawned  on  his  mind;  and  when  such 
suspicions  take  possession  of  a  son  and  a  King,  nothing  can 
remove  them.  In  fact,  on  his  deathbed  his  mother  was 
obliged  to  interrupt  him,  exclaiming,  "Do  not  say  that,  mon- 
sieur V  when  Charles  IX.,  intrusting  his  wife  and  daughter  to 
the  care  of  Henri  IV.,  was  about  to  put  him  on  his  guard 
against  Catherine. 

Though  Charles  IX.  never  failed  in  the  superficial  respect 
of  which  she  was  so  jealous,  and  she  never  called  the  Kings, 
her  sons,  anything  but  monsieur,  the  Queen-mother  had,  for 
some  months  past,  detected  in  Charles'  manner  the  ill-dis- 
guised irony  of  revenge  held  in  suspense.  But  he  must  be  a 
clever  man  who  could  deceive  Catherine.  She  held  in  her 
hand  this  conspiracy  of  the  Due  d'Alengon  and  la  Mole,  so 
as  to  be  able  to  divert  Charles'  efforts  at  emancipation  by  his 
new  rivalry  of  a  brother;  but  before  making  use  of  it,  she 
was  anxious  to  dissipate  the  want  of  confidence  which  might 
make  her  reconciliation  with  the  King  impossible — for  how 
could  he  leave  the  power  in  the  hands  of  a  mother  who  waa 
capable  of  poisoning  him  ? 

Indeed,  at  this  juncture  she  thought  herself  so  far  in  dan- 
ger that  she  had  sent  for  Strozzi,  her  cousin,  a  soldier  famous 
for  his  death.  She  held  secret  councils  with  Birague  and  the 
Gondis,  and  never  had  she  so  frequently  consulted  the  oracle 
of  the  Hotel  de  Soissons. 

Though  long  habits  of  dissimulation  and  advancing  years 
had  given  Catherine  that  Abbess-like  countenance,  haughty 
and  ascetic,  expressionless  and  yet  deep,  reserved  but  scru- 
tinizing, and  so  remarkable  for  any  student  of  her  portraits, 
those  about  her  perceived  a  cloud  over  this  cold,  Florentine 
mirror.    No  sovereign  was  ever  a  more  imposing  figure  than 


248  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

this  woman  had  made  herself  since  the  day  when  she  had 
succeeded  in  coercing  the  Guises  after  the  death  of  Fran- 
cis II.  Her  black  velvet  hood,  with  a  peak  over  the  forehead, 
for  she  never  went  out  of  mourning  for  Henri  II.,  was,  as 
it  were,  a  womanly  cowl  round  her  cold,  imperious  features, 
to  which  she  could,  however,  on  occasion,  give  insinuating 
Italian  charm.  She  was  so  well  made,  that  she  introduced 
the  fashion  for  women  to  ride  on  horseback  in  such  a  way 
as  to  display  their  legs;  this  is  enough  to  prove  that  hers 
were  of  perfect  form.  Every  lady  in  Europe  thenceforth  rode 
on  a  side-saddle,  a  la  planchette,  for  France  had  long  set  the 
fashions. 

To  any  one  who  can  picture  this  impressive  figure,  the  scene 
in  the  great  room  that  evening  has  an  imposing  aspect.  The 
two  Queens,  so  unlike  in  spirit,  in  beauty,  and  in  dress,  and 
almost  at  daggers  drawn,  were  both  much  too  absent-minded 
to  give  the  impetus  for  which  the  courtiers  waited  to  raise 
their  spirits. 

The  dead  secret  of  the  drama  which,  for  the  past  six 
months,  the  son  and  mother  had  been  cautiously  playing,  was 
guessed  by  some  of  their  followers;  the  Italians,  more  es- 
pecially, had  kept  an  attentive  lookout,  for  if  Catherine  should 
lose  the  game,  they  would  all  be  the  victims.  Under  these 
circumstances,  at  a  moment  when  Catherine  and  her  son  were 
vying  with  each  other  in  subterfuges,  the  King  was  the  centre 
of  observation. 

Charles  IX.,  tired  by  a  long  day's  hunting,  and  by  the 
serious  reflections  he  brooded  over  in  secret,  looked  forty  this 
evening.  He  had  reached  the  last  stage  of  the  malady  which 
killed  him,  and  which  gave  rise  to  grave  suspicions  of  poison. 
According  to  de  Thou,  the  Tacitus  of  the  Valois,  the  surgeon 
found  unaccountable  spots  in  the  King's  body  {ex  causa  in- 
cognita reperti  livores).  His  funeral  was  even  more  care- 
lessly conducted  than  that  of  Francis  II.  Charles  the  Ninth 
was  escorted  from  Saint-Lazare  to  Saint-Denis  by  Brantome 
and  a  few  archers  of  the  Guard  commanded  by  the  Comte 
de  Solern.     This  circumstance,  added  to  the  mother's  sup- 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  249 

posed  hatred  of  her  son,  may  confirm  the  accusation  brought 
against  her  by  de  Thou ;  at  least  it  gives  weight  to  the  opinion 
here  expressed,  that  she  cared  little  for  any  of  her  children, 
an  indifference  which  is  accounted  for  by  her  faith  in  the 
pronouncement  of  astrology.  Such  a  woman  could  not  care 
for  tools  that  were  to  break  in  her  hands.  Henri  III.  was  the 
last  King  under  whom  she  could  hope  to  reign;  and  that  was 
all. 

In  our  day  it  seems  allowable  to  suppose  that  Charles  IX. 
died  a  natural  death.  His  excesses,  his  manner  of  life,  the 
sudden  dc'-'elopment  of  his  powers,  his  last  struggles  to  seiza 
the  reins  of  government,  his  desire  to  live,  his  waste  o| 
strength,  his  last  sufferings  and  his  last  pleasures,  all  indit 
cate,  to  impartial  judges,  that  he  died  of  disease  of  the  lungs, 
a  malady  at  that  time  little  understood,  and  of  which  nothi 
ing  was  known ;  and  its  symptoms  might  lead  Charles  himsell 
to  believe  that  he  was  poisoned. 

The  real  poison  given  him  by  his  mother  lay  in  the  evil 
counsels  of  the  courtiers  with  whom  she  surrounded  him,  who 
induced  him  to  waste  his  intellectual  and  physical  powers, 
and  who  thus  were  the  cause  of  a  disease  which  was  purely  in- 
cidental and  not  congenital. 

Charles  the  Ninth,  at  this  period  of  his  life  more  than  at 
any  other,  bore  the  stamp  of  a  sombre  dignity  not  unbecoming 
in  a  King.  The  majesty  of  his  secret  thoughts  was  reflected 
in  his  face,  which  was  remarkable  for  the  Italian  complexion 
he  inherited  from  his  mother.  This  ivory  pallor,  so  beautiful 
by  artificial  light,  and  so  well  suited  with  an  expression  of 
melancholy,  gave  added  effect  to  his  deep  blue  eyes  showing 
narrowly  under  thick  eyelids,  and  thus  acquiring  that  keen 
acumen  which  imagination  pictures  in  the  glance  of  a  King, 
while  their  color  was  an  aid  to  dissimulation.  Charles'  eyes 
derived  an  awe-inspiring  look  from  his  high,  marked  eye- 
brows— accentuating  a  lofty  forehead — which  he  could  lift 
or  lower  with  singular  facility.  His  nose  was  long  and  broad, 
and  thick  at  the  tip — a  true  lion's  nose;  ho  had  large  ears; 
light  reddish  hair ;  lips  of  the  color  of  blood,  the  lips  of  a  con- 


250  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

sumptive  man ;  the  upper  lip  thin  and  satirical,  the  lower  full 
enough  to  indicate  fine  qualities  of  feeling. 

The  wrinkles  stamped  on  his  brow  in  early  life,  when  ter- 
rible anxieties  had  blighted  its  freshness,  made  his  face  in- 
tensely interesting — more  than  one  had  been  caused  by  re- 
morse for  the  massacre  of  Saint-Bartholomew,  a  deed  which 
had  been  craftily  foisted  on  him;  but  there  were  two  other 
lines  on  his  face  which  would  have  been  eloquent  to  any' 
student  who  at  that  time  could  have  had  a  special  revelation 
of  the  principles  of  modern  physiology.  These  lines  made 
a  deep  furrow  from  the  cheek-bones  to  each  corner  of  the 
mouth,  and  betrayed  the  efforts  made  by  an  exhausted  or- 
ganization to  respond  to  mental  strain  and  to  violent  physical 
enjoyment.  Charles  IX.  was  worn  out.  The  Queen-mother, 
seeing  her  work,  must  have  felt  some  remorse,  unless,  indeed, 
politics  stifle  such  a  feeling  in  all  who  sit  under  the  purple. 
If  Catherine  could  have  foreseen  the  effects  of  her  intrigues 
on  her  son,  she  might  perhaps  have  shrunk  from  them? 

It  was  a  terrible  spectacle.  The  King,  by  nature  so  strong, 
had  become  weak;  the  spirit,  so  nobly  tempered,  was  racked 
by  doubts;  this  man,  the  centre  of  authority,  felt  himself 
helpless ;  the  naturally  firm  temper  had  lost  confidence  in  its 
power.  The  warrior's  valor  had  degenerated  into  ferocity, 
reserve  had  become  dissimulation,  the  refined  and  tender 
passion  of  the  Valois  was  an  insatiable  thirst  for  pleasure. 
This  great  man,  misprized,  perverted,  with  every  side  of  his 
noble  spirit  chafed  to  a  sore,  a  King  without  power,  a  loving 
heart  without  a  friend,  torn  a  thousand  ways  by  conflicting 
schemes,  was,  at  four-and-twenty,  the  melancholy  image  of 
a  man  who  has  found  everything  wanting,  who  distrusts 
every  one,  who  is  ready  to  stake  his  all,  even  his  life.  Only 
lately  had  he  understood  his  mission,  his  power,  his  re-' 
sources,  and  the  obstacles  placed  by  his  mother  in  the  way 
of  the  pacification  of  the  kingdom;  and  the  light  glowed  in 
a  broken  lamp. 

Two  men,  for  whom  the  King  had  so  great  a  regard  that 
he  had  saved  one  from  the  massacre  of  Saint-Bartholomew, 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  251 

and  had  dined  with  the  other  at  a  time  when  his  enemies 
accused  him  of  poisoning  the  King — his  chief  physician  Jean 
Chapelain,  and  the  great  surgeon  Ambroise  Pare — had  been 
sent  for  from  the  country  by  Catherine,  and,  obeying  tlie 
summons  in  hot  haste,  arrived  at  the  King's  bedtime.  They 
looked  anxiously  at  their  sovereign,  and  some  of  the  courtiers 
made  whispered  inquiries,  but  they  answered  with  due  re- 
serve, saying  nothing  of  the  sentence  each  had  secretly  pro 
nounced.  Now  and  again  the  King  would  raise  his  heavj^^ 
eyelids  and  try  to  conceal  from  the  bystanders  the  glance 
he  shot  at  his  mother.  Suddenly  he  rose,  and  went  to  stand 
in  front  of  the  fireplace. 

"Monsieur  de  Chiverni,"  said  he,  "why  do  you  keep  the 
title  of  Chancellor  of  Anjou  and  Poland?  Are  you  our  ser- 
vant or  our  brother's?" 

"I  am  wholly  yours.  Sire,"  replied  Chiverni,  with  a  bow. 

"Well,  then,  come  to-morrow;  I  mean  to  send  you  to 
Spain,  for  strange  things  are  doing  at  the  Court  of  Madrid, 
gentlemen." 

The  King  looked  at  his  wife  and  returned  to  his  chair. 

"Strange  things  are  doing  everywhere,"  he  added  in  a 
whisper  to  Marshal  Tavannes,  one  of  the  favorites  of  his 
younger  days.  And  he  rose  to  lead  the  partner  of  his  youthful 
pleasures  into  the  recess  of  an  oriel  window,  saying  to  him : 

"I  want  you ;  stay  till  the  last.  I  must  know  whether  you 
will  be  with  me  or  against  me.  Do  not  look  astonished.  I 
am  breaking  the  leading  strings.  My  mother  is  at  the  bottom 
of  all  the  mischief  here.  In  three  months  I  shall  either  be 
dead,  or  be  really  King.  As  you  love  your  life,  silence !  You 
are  in  my  secret  with  Solern  and  Villeroy.  If  the  least  hint 
is  given,  it  will  come  from  one  of  you  three. — Do  not  keep 
too  close  to  me;  go  and  pay  your  court  to  my  mother;  tell 
her  that  I  am  dying,  and  that  you  cannot  regret  it,  for  that 
I  am  but  a  poor  creature." 

Charles  IX.  walked  round  the  room  leaning  on  his  old 
favorite's  shoulder,  and  discussing  his  sufferings  with  him, 
to  mislead  inquisitive  persons ;  then,  fearing  that  his  coldness 


252  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

might  be  too  marked,  he  went  to  talk  with  the  two  Queens, 
calling  Birague  to  his  side. 

Just  then  Pinard  glided  in  at  the  door  and  came  up  to 
Queen  Catherine,  slipping  in  like  an  eel,  close  to  the  wall. 
He  murmured  two  words  in  the  Queen-mother's  ear,  and 
she  replied  with  an  affirmative  nod.  The  King  did  not  ask 
what  this  meant,  but  he  went  back  to  his  chair  with  a  scowl 
round  the  room  of  horrible  rage  and  jealousy.  This  little  in- 
,cident  was  of  immense  importance  in  the  eyes  of  all  the  Court. 
This  exertion  of  authority  without  any  appeal  to  the  King 
was  like  the  drop  of  water  that  makes  the  glass  overflow. 
The  young  Queen  and  Countess  Fieschi  withdrew  without  the 
King's  paying  her  the  least  attention,  but  the  Queen-mother 
attended  her  daughter-in-law  to  the  door.  Though  the  mis- 
understanding between  the  mother  and  son  lent  enormous 
interest  to  the  movements,  looks,  and  attitude  of  Catherine 
and  Charles  IX.,  their  cold  composure  plainly  showed  the 
courtiers  that  they  were  in  the  way;  as  soon  as  the  Queen 
had  gone  they  took  their  leave.  At  ten  o'clock  no  one  re- 
mained but  certain  intimate  persons — ^the  two  Gondis, 
Tavannes,  the  Comte  de  Solern,  Birague,  and  the  Queen- 
mother. 

The  King  sat  plunged  in  the  deepest  melancholy.  This 
silence  was  fatiguing.  Catherine  seemed  at  a  loss ;  she  wished 
to  retire,  and  she  wanted  the  King  to  attend  her  to  the  door, 
but  Charles  remained  obstinately  lost  in  thought ;  she  rose  to 
bid  him  good-night,  Charles  was  obliged  to  follow  her  ex- 
ample; she  took  his  arm,  and  went  a  few  steps  with  him  to 
speak  in  his  ear  these  few  words : 

"Monsieur,  I  have  matters  of  importance  to  discuss  with 
you." 

As  she  left,  the  Queen-mother  met  the  eyes  of  the  Grondis 
reflected  in  a  glass,  and  gave  them  a  significant  glance, 
which  her  son  could  not  see — all  the  more  so  because  he  him- 
self was  exchanging  meaning  looks  with  the  Comte  de  Solem 
and  Villeroy;  Tavannes  was  absorbed  in  thought. 

"Sire,"  said  the  Marechal  de  Eetz,  coming  out  of  his  medi- 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  253 

tations,  "you  seem  right  royally  bored.  Do  you  never  amuse 
yourself  nowadays?  Heaven  above  us!  where  are  the  times 
when  we  went  gadding  about  the  streets  of  nights  ?" 

"Yes,  those  were  good  times,"  said  the  King,  not  without  a 
sigh. 

"Why  not  be  off  now  ?"  said  Monsieur  de  Birague,  bowing 
himself  out,  with  a  wink  at  the  Gondis. 

"I  always  think  of  that  time  with  pleasure,"  cried  the 
Marechal  de  Retz. 

"I  should  like  to  see  you  on  the  roofs,  Monsieur  le  Mare- 
chal," said  Tavannes.  "Sacre  chat  dfltalie,  if  you  might  but 
break  your  neck,"  he  added  in  an  undertone  to  the  King. 

"I  know  not  whether  you  or  I  should  be  nimblest  at 
jumping  across  a  yard  or  a  street;  but  what  I  do  know  is, 
that  neither  of  us  is  more  afraid  of  death  than  the  other," 
replied  the  Due  de  Retz. 

"Well,  sir,  will  you  come  to  scour  the  town  as  you  did 
when  you  were  young?"  said  the  Master  of  the  Wardrobe 
to  the  King. 

Thus  at  four-and-twenty  the  unhappy  King  was  no  longer 
thought  young,  even  by  his  flatterers.  Tavannes  and  the 
King  recalled,  like  two  school-fellows,  some  of  the  good  tricks 
they  had  perpetrated  in  Paris,  and  the  party  was  soon  made 
up.  The  two  Italians,  being  dared  to  jump  from  roof  to 
roof  across  the  street,  pledged  themselves  to  follow  where 
the  King  should  lead.  They  all  went  to  put  on  common 
clothes. 

The  Comte  de  Solem,  left  alone  with  the  King,  looked  at 
•  him  with  amazement.  The  worthy  German,  though  filled 
with  compassion  as  he  understood  the  position  of  the  King 
of  France,  was  fidelity  and  honor  itself,  but  he  had  not  a  lively 
imagination.  King  Charles,  surrounded  by  enemies,  and 
trusting  no  one,  not  even  his  wife — who,  not  knowing  that 
hiB  mother  and  all  her  servants  were  inimical  to  him,  had 
committed  some  little  indiscretions — was  happy  to  have  found 
in  Monsieur  de  Solem  a  devotion  which  justified  complete 
confidence.     Tavannes  and  Villeroy  were  only  partly  in  the 


264  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

secret.  The  Comte  de  Solem  alone  knew  the  whole  of  the 
King's  schemes;  and  he  was  in  every  way  very  useful  to  his 
master,  inasmuch  as  that  he  had  a  handful  of  confidential 
and  attached  men  at  his  orders  who  obeyed  him  blindly. 
Monsieur  de  Solem,  who  held  a  command  in  the  Archers 
of  the  Guard,  had  for  some  days  been  picking  from  among 
his  men  some  who  were  faithful  in  their  adherence  to  the 
King,  to  form  a  chosen  company.  The  King  could  think 
Jof  everything. 

"Well,  Solern,"  said  Charles  IX.,  "we  were  needing  a  pre- 
text for  spending  a  night  out  of  doors.  I  had  the  excuse, 
of  course,  of  Madame  de  Belleville;  but  this  is  better,  for 
my  mother  can  find  out  what  goes  on  at  Marie's  house." 

Monsieur  de  Solern,  as  he  was  to  attend  the  King,  asked 
if  he  might  not  go  the  rounds  with  some  of  his  Germans, 
and  to  this  Charles  consented.  By  eleven  o'clock  the  King, 
in  better  spirits  now,  set  out  with  his  three  companions  to 
explore  the  neighborhood  of  the  Kue  Saint-Honore. 

"I  will  take  my  lady  by  surprise,"  said  Charles  to  Tavannes 
as  they  went  along  the  Rue  de  I'Autruche. 

To  make  this  nocturnal  ploy  more  intelligible  to  those 
who  may  be  ignorant  of  the  topography  of  old  Paris,  it  will 
be  necessary  to  explain  the  position  of  the  Rue  de  I'Autruche. 
The  part  of  the  Louvre,  begun  by  Henri  II.,  was  still  being 
built  amid  the  wreck  of  houses.  Where  the  wing  now  stands 
looking  over  the  Pont  des  Arts,  there  was  at  that  time  a 
garden.  In  the  place  of  the  Colonnade  there  were  a  moat 
and  a  drawbridge  on  which,  somewhat  later,  a  Florentine, 
the  Marechal  d'Ancre,  met  his  death.  Beyond  this  garden 
rose  the  turrets  of  the  Hotel  de  Bourbon,  the  residence  of 
the  princes  of  that  branch  till  the  day  when  the  Constable's 
treason  (after  he  was  ruined  by  the  confiscation  of  his  pos- 
sessions, decreed  by  Francis  I.,  to  avoid  having  to  decide 
between  him  and  his  mother)  put  an  end  to  the  trial  that 
had  cost  France  so  dear,  by  the  confiscation  of  the  Constable's 
estates. 

This  chateau,  which  looked  well  from  the  river,  was  not 
destroyed  till  the  time  of  Louis  XIV. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  255 

The  Rue  de  I'Autruche  ran  from  the  Rue  Saint-Honore, 
ending  at  the  Hotel  de  Bourbon  on  the  quay.  This  street, 
named  de  I'Autriche  on  some  old  plans,  and  de  I'Austruc  on 
others,  has,  like  many  more,  disappeared  from  the  map.  The 
Rue  des  Poulies  would  seem  to  have  been  cut  across  the 
ground  occupied  by  the  houses  nearest  to  the  Rue  Saint- 
Honore.  Authors  have  differed,  too,  as  to  the  etymology  of 
the  name.  Some  suppose  it  to  be  derived  from  a  certain 
Hotel  d'Osteriche  {Osterrichen)  inhabited  in  the  fourteenth 
century  by  a  daughter  of  that  house  who  married  a  French 
nobleman.  Some  assert  that  this  was  the  site  of  the  Royal 
Aviaries,  whither,  once  on  a  time,  all  Paris  crowded  to  see  a 
living  ostrich. 

Be  it  as  it  may,  this  tortuous  street  was  made  notable 
by  the  residences  of  certain  princes  of  the  blood,  who  dwelt 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  Louvre.  Since  the  sovereign  had  de- 
serted the  Faubourg  Saint-Antoine,  where  for  several  cen- 
turies he  had  lived  in  the  Bastille,  and  removed  to  the  Louvre, 
many"  of  the  nobility  had  settled  near  the  palace.  The  Hotel 
de  Bourbon  had  its  fellow  in  the  old  Hotel  d'Alengon  in  the 
Rue  Saint-Honore.  This;  the  palace  of  the  Counts  of  that 
name,  always  an  appanage  of  the  Crown,  was  at  this  time 
owned  by  Henri  II.'s  fourth  son,  who  subsequently  took  the 
title  of  Due  d'Anjou,  and  who  died  in  the  reign  of  Henri  III., 
to  whom  he  gave  no  little  trouble.  The  estate  then  reverted 
to  the  Crown,  including  the  old  palace,  which  was  pulled 
down.  In  those  days  a  prince's  residence  was  a  vast  assem- 
blage of  buildings;  to  form  some  idea  of  its  extent,  we  have 
only  to  go  and  see  the  space  covered  by  the  Hotel  de  Soubise, 
which  is  still  standing  in  the  Marais.  Such  a  palace  included 
all  the  buildings  necessary  to  these  magnificent  lives,  which 
may  seem  almost  problematical  to  many  persons  to  see  how 
poor  is  the  state  of  a  prince  in  these  days.  There  were  im- 
mense stables,  lodgings  for  physicians,  librarians,  chancellor, 
chaplains,  treasurers,  officials,  pages,  paid  servants,  and 
lackeys,  attached  to  the  Prince's  person. 

Not  far  from  the  Rue  Saint-Honore,  in  a  garden  belonging 


256  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

to  the  Hotel,  stood  a  pretty  little  house  built  in  1520  by  com- 
mand of  the  celebrated  Duchesse  d'Alengon,  which  had  since 
been  surrounded  with  other  houses  erected  by  merchants. 
Here  the  King  had  installed  Marie  Touchet.  Although  the 
Due  d'AlenQon  was  engaged  in  a  conspiracy  against  the  King 
at  that  time,  he  was  incapable  of  annoying  him  in  such  a 
matter. 

As  the  King  was  obliged  to  pass  by  his  lady's  door  on  his 
way  down  the  Rue  Saint-Honore,  where  at  that  time  highway 
robbers  had  no  opportunities  within  the  Barriere  des  Ser- 
gents,  he  could  hardly  avoid  stopping  there.  While  keeping 
a  lookout  for  some  stroke  of  luck — a  belated  citizen  to  be 
robbed,  or  the  watch  to  be  thrashed — the  King  scanned  every, 
window,  peeping  in  wherever  he  saw  lights,  to  see  what  was 
going  on,  or  to  overhear  a  conversation.  But  he  found  his 
good  city  in  a  provokingly  peaceful  state.  On  a  sudden,  as  he 
came  in  front  of  the  house  kept  by  a  famous  perfumer  named 
Rene,  who  supplied  the  Court,  the  King  was  seized  with  one 
of  those  swift  inspirations  which  are  suggested  by  antecedent 
observation,  as  he  saw  a  bright  light  shining  from  the  top- 
most window  of  the  roof. 

This  perfumer  was  strongly  suspected  of  doctoring  rich 
uncles  when  they  complained  of  illness;  he  was  credited  at 
Court  with  the  invention  of  the  famous  Elixir  a  successions — 
the  Elixir  of  Inheritance — and  had  been  accused  of  poisoning 
Jeanne  d'Albret,  Henri  IV.'s  mother,  who  was  buried  without 
her  head  having  been  opened,  in  spite  of  the  express  orders 
of  Charles  IX.,  as  a  contemporary  tells  us.  For  two  months 
past  the  King  had  been  seeking  some  stratagem  to  enable 
him  to  spy  out  the  secrets  of  Rene's  laboratory,  whither  Cosmo 
Ruggieri  frequently  resorted.  Charles  intended,  if  anything 
should  arouse  his  suspicions,  to  take  steps  himself  without 
the  intervention  of  the  Police  or  the  Law,  over  whom  his 
mother  would  exert  the  influence  of  fear  or  of  bribery. 

It  is  beyond  all  doubt  that  during  the  sixteenth  century, 
and  the  years  immediately  preceding  and  following  it,  poison- 
ing had  been  brought  to  a  pitch  of  perfection  which  remains 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  267 

unknovm  to  modern  chemistry,  but  which  is  indisputably 
proved  by  history.  Italy,  the  cradle  of  modern  science,  was 
at  that  time  the  inventor  and  mistress  of  these  secrets,  many 
of  which  are  lost.  Eomancers  have  made  such  extravagant 
use  of  this  fact,  that  whenever  they  introduce  Italians  they 
make  them  play  the  part  of  assassins  and  poisoners. 

But  though  Italy  had  then  the  monopoly  of  those  subtle 
poisons  of  which  historians  tell  us,  we  must  regard  her 
supremacy  in  toxicology  merely  as  part  of  her  pre-eminence 
in  all  branches  of  knowledge  and  in  the  arts,  in  which  she 
led  the  way  for  all  Europe.  The  crimes  of  the  period  were 
not  hers  alone;  she  served  the  passions  of  the  age,  as  she 
built  magnificently,  commanded  armies,  painted  glorious 
frescoes,  sang  songs,  loved  Queens,  and  directed  politics.  At 
Florence  this  hideous  art  had  reached  such  perfection,  that 
a  woman  dividing  a  peach  with  a  duke  could  make  use  of  a 
knife  of  which  one  side  only  was  poisoned,  and,  eating  the 
untainted  half,  dealt  death  with  the  other.  A  pair  of  per- 
fumed gloves  introduced  a  mortal  malady  by  the  pores  of 
the  hand ;  poison  could  be  concealed  in  a  bunch  of  fresh  roses 
of  which  the  fragrance,  inhaled  but  once,  meant  certain  death. 
Don  Juan  of  Austria,  it  is  said,  was  poisoned  by  a  pair  of 
boots. 

So  King  Charles  had  a  right  to  be  inquisitive,  and  it 
is  easy  to  imagine  how  greatly  the  dark  suspicions  which  tor- 
mented him  added  to  his  eagerness  to  detect  Eene  in  the  act. 

The  old  fountain,  since  rebuilt,  at  the  comer  of  the  Kue 
de  I'Arbre-Sec,  afforded  this  illustrious  crew  the  necessary 
access  to  the  roof  of  a  house,  which  the  King  pretended  that 
he  wished  to  invade,  not  far  from  Eene's.  Charles,  followed 
by  his  companions,  began  walking  along  the  roofs,  to  the 
great  terror  of  the  good  folks  awakened  by  these  marauders, 
who  would  call  to  them,  giving  them  some  coarsely  grotesque 
>name,  listen  to  family  squabbles  or  love-makings,  or  do  some 
vexatious  damage. 

When  the  two  Gondis  saw  Tavannes  and  the  King  clam- 
bering along  the  roof  adjoining  Rene's,  the  Marechal  de  Eetz 


258  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

sat  down,  saying  he  was  tired,  and  his  brother  remained  with 
him. 

"So  much  the  better,"  thought  the  King,  glad  to  be  quit 
of  his  spies. 

Tavannes  made  fun  of  the  two  Italians,  who  were  then 
left  alone  in  the  midst  of  perfect  silence  in  a  place  where 
they  had  only  the  sky  above  them  and  the  cats  for  listeners. 
And  the  brothers  took  advantage  of  this  position  to  speak  out 
thoughts  which  they  never  would  have  uttered  elsewhere — - 
thoughts  suggested  by  the  incidents  of  the  evening. 

"Albert,"  said  the  Grand  Master  to  the  Marshal,  "the  King 
will  get  the  upper  hand  of  the  Queen ;  we  are  doing  bad  busi- 
ness so  far  as  our  fortunes  are  concerned  by  attaching  our- 
selves to  Catherine's.  If  we  transfer  our  services  to  the  King 
now,  when  he  is  seeking  some  support  against  his  mother, 
and  needs  capable  men  to  rely  upon,  we  shall  not  be  turned 
out  like  wild  beasts  when  the  Queen-mother  is  banished,  im- 
prisoned, or  killed." 

"You  will  not  get  far,  Charles,  by  that  road,"  the  Marshal 
replied.  "You  will  follow  your  master  into  the  grave,  and 
he  has  not  long  to  live;  he  is  wrecked  by  dissipation;  Cosmo 
Euggieri  has  foretold  his  death  next  year." 

"A  dying  boar  has  often  gored  the  hunter,"  said  Charles 
de  Gondi.  "This  plot  of  the  Due  d'Alengon  with  the  King  of 
Navarre  and  the  Prince  de  Conde,  of  which  la  Mole  and 
Coconnas  are  taking  the  onus,  is  dangerous  rather  than  use- 
ful. In  the  first  place,  the  King  of  Navarre,  whom  the 
Queen-mother  hopes  to  take  in  the  fact,  is  too  suspicious  of 
her,  and  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  He  means  to  get 
the  benefit  of  the  conspiracy  and  run  none  of  the  risks.  And 
now,  the  last  idea  is  to  place  the  crown  on  the  head  of  the 
Due  d'Alengon,  who  is  to  turn  Calvinist." 

"Budelonef  Dolt  that  you  are,  do  not  you  see  that  this 
plot  enables  our  Queen  to  learn  what  the  Huguenots  can 
do  vidth  the  Due  d'Alengon,  and  what  the  King  means  to  do 
with  the  Huguenots?  For  the  King  is  temporizing  with 
them.  And  Catherine,  to  set  the  King  riding  on  a  wooden 
horse,  will  betray  the  plot  which  must  nullify  his  schemes." 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  259 

"Ay  I"  said  Charles  de  Gondi,  "by  dint  of  taking  oui  advice 
she  can  beat  us  at  our  own  game.    That  is  very  good." 

"Good  for  the  Due  d'Anjou,  who  would  rather  be  King  of 
France  than  King  of  Poland ;  I  am  going  to  explain  matters 
to  him." 

"You  are  going,  Albert  ?" 
f     "To-morrow.     Is  it  not  my  duty  to  attend  the  King  of 
Poland  ?     I  shall  join  him  at  Venice,  where  the  Signori  have 
undertaken  to  amuse  him." 

"You  are  prudence  itself." 

"Che  hestia!  I  assure  you  solemnly  that  there  is  not  the 
slightest  danger  for  either  of  us  at  Court.  If  there  were, 
should  I  leave?    I  would  stick  to  our  kind  mistress." 

"Kind !"  said  the  Grand  Master.  "She  is  the  woman  to 
drop  her  tools  if  she  finds  them  too  heavy." 

"0  coglione!  You  call  yourself  a  soldier,  and  are  afraid 
of  death?  Every  trade  has  its  duties,  and  our  duty  is  to 
Fortune.  When  we  attach  ourselves  to  monarchs  who  are 
the  fount  of  all  temporal  power,  and  who  protect  and  en- 
noble and  enrich  our  families,  we  have  to  give  them  such  love 
as  inflames  the  soul  of  the  martyr  for  heaven;  when  they 
sacrifice  us  for  the  throne  we  may  perish,  for  we  die  as  much 
for  ourselves  as  for  them,  but  our  family  does  not  perish. — 
Ecco;  I  have  said !" 

"You  are  quite  right,  Albert;  you  have  got  the  old  duchy 
of  Eetz." 

"Listen  to  me,"  said  the  Due  de  Eetz.  "The  Queen  has 
great  hopes  of  the  Euggieri  and  their  arts  to  reconcile  her  to 
her  son.  When  that  artful  youth  refused  to  have  anything  to 
do  with  Eene,  our  Queen  easily  guessed  what  her  son's  sus- 
picions were.  But  who  can  tell  what  the  King  has  in  his 
pocket  ?  Perhaps  he  is  only  doubting  as  to  what  fate  he  in- 
tends for  his  mother ;  he  hates  her,  you  understand  ?  He  said 
something  of  his  purpose  to  the  Queen,  and  the  Queen  talked 
of  it  to  Madame  de  Fieschi;  Madame  de  Fieschi  carried  it 
on  to  the  Queen-mother,  and  since  then  the  King  has  kept 
out  of  his  wife's  way," 


260  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

'It  was  high  time "  said  Charles  de  Gondi. 

'"What  to  do  ?"  asked  the  Marshal. 

"To  give  the  King  something  to  do,"  replied  the  Grand 
Master,  who,  though  he  was  on  less  intimate  terms  with 
Catherine  than  his  brother,  was  not  less  clear-sighted. 

"Charles,"  said  de  Eetz  gravely,  "I  have  started  on  a  splen- 
did road;  but  if  you  want  to  be  a  Duke,  you  must,  like  me, 
'be  our  mistress'  ready  tool.  She  will  remain  Queen;  she  is 
,the  strongest.  Madame  de  Sauves  is  still  devoted  to  her;  and 
the  King  of  Navarre  and  the  Due  d'Alengon  are  devoted  to 
Madame  de  Sauves;  Catherine  will  always  have  them  in  lead- 
ing strings  under  this  King,  as  she  will  have  them  under 
King  Henri  III.    Heaven  send  he  may  not  be  ungrateful !" 

'Why?" 

"His  mother  does  too  much  for  him.*' 

"Hark !  There  is  a  noise  in  the  Hue  Saint-Honore,"  cried 
Charles  de  Gondi.  "Eene's  door  is  being  locked.  Cannot 
you  hear  a  number  of  men?  They  must  have  taken  the 
Euggieri." 

"The  deviir  What  a  piece  of  prudence!  The  King  has 
not  shown  his  usual  impetuosity.  But  where  will  he  imprison 
them? — Let  us  see  what  is  going  on." 

The  brothers  reached  the  corner  of  the  Eue  de  I'Autruche 
at  the  moment  when  the  King  was  entering  his  mistress'* 
house.  By  the  light  of  the  torches  held  by  the  gatekeeper 
they  recognized  Tavannes  and  the  Euggieri. 

"Well,  Tavannes,"  the  Grand  Master  called  out  as  he  ran 
after  the  King's  companion,  who  was  making  his  way  back 
to  the  Louvre,  "what  adventures  have  you  had  ?" 

"We  dropped  on  a  full  council  of  wizards,  and  arrested  two 
who  are  friends  of  yours,  and  who  will  explain  for  the  benefit 
of  French  noblemen  by  what  means  you,  who  are  not  French- 
men, have  contrived  to  clutch  two  Crown  offices,"  said  Ta- 
vannes, half  in  jest. 

"And  the  King?"  asked  the  Grand  Master,  who  was  not 
much  disturbed  by  Tavannes'  hostility. 

"He  is  staying  with  his  mistress." 


ABOUT  CATHBRINE  DE'  MEDICI  261 

''We  have  risen  to  where  we  stand  by  the  most  absolute 
devotion  to  our  masters,  a  brilliant  and  noble  career  which 
you  too  have  adopted,  my  dear  Duke/'  replied  the  Marechal 
de  Betz. 

The  three  courtiers  walked  on  in  silence.  As  they  bid 
each  other  good-night,  rejoining  their  retainers,  who  escorted 
them  home,  two  men  lightly  glided  along  the  Eue  de  I'Au- 
truche  in  the  shadow  of  the  wall.  These  were  the  King  and 
the  Comte  de  Solem,  who  soon  reached  the  river-bank  at  a 
spot  where  a  boat  and  rowers,  engaged  by  the  German  Count, 
were  awaiting  them.  In  a  few  minutes  they  had  reached  the 
opposite  shore. 

"My  mothen  is  not  in  bed,"  cried  the  King,  "she  will  see 
us ;  we  have  not  made  a  good  choice  of  our  meeting-place." 

"She  will  think  some  duel  is  in  the  wind,"  said  Solem. 
"And  how  is  she  to  distinguish  who  we  are  at  this  distance  ?" 

**Well !  Even  if  she  sees  me !"  cried  Charles  IX.  "I  have 
made  up  my  mind  now." 

The  King  and  his  friend  jumped  on  shore,  and  hurried 
off  towards  the  Pre  aux  Clercs.  On  arriving  there,  the  Comte 
de  Solem,  who  went  first,  parleyed  with  a  man  on  sentry, 
with  whom  he  exchanged  a  few  words,  and  who  then  withdrew 
to  a  group  of  others. 

Presently  two  men,  who  seemed  to  be  princes  by  the  way  the 
outposts  saluted  them,  left  the  spot  where  they  were  in  hiding 
behind  some  broken  fencing,  and  came  to  the  King,  to  whom 
they  bent  the  knee;  but  Charles  IX.  raised  them  before  they 
could  touch  the  ground,  saying : 

"No  ceremony ;  here  we  are  all  gentlemen  together." 

These  three  were  now  joined  by  a  venerable  old  man,  who 
might  have  been  taken  for  the  Chancellor  de  I'Hopital,  but 
that  he  had  died  the  year  before.  Then  all  four  walked  on 
as  quickly  as  possible  to  reach  a  spot  where  their  conversation 
could  not  be  overheard  by  their  retainers,  and  Solern  followed 
ihem  at  a  little  distance  to  keep  guard  over  the  King.  This 
faithful  servant  felt  some  doubts  which  Charles  did  not  share. 


262  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

for  to  him  indeed  life  was  too  great  a  burden.  The  Count 
was  the  only  witness  to  the  meeting  on  the  King's  side. 

It  soon  became  interesting. 

"Sire,"  said  one  of  the  speakers,  "the  Connetable  de  Mont^ 
morency,  the  best  friend  the  King,  your  father,  had,  and 
possessed  of  all  his  secrets,  agreed  with  the  Marechal  de  Saint- 
Andre  that  Madame  Catherine  should  be  sewn  up  in  a  sack 
and  thrown  into  the  river.  If  that  had  been  done,  many 
good  men  would  be  alive  now." 

"I  have  executions  enough  on  my  conscience,  monsieur/' 
replied  the  King. 

"Well,  Sire,"  said  the  youngest  of  the  four  gentlemen, 
"from  the  depths  of  exile  Queen  Catherine  would  still  manage 
to  interfere  and  find  men  to  help  her.  Have  we  not  every- 
thing to  fear  from  the  Guises,  who,  nine  years  since,  schemed 
for  a  monstrous  Catholic  alliance,  in  which  your  Majesty  is 
not  included,  and  which  is  a  danger  to  the  throne?  This 
alliance  is  a  Spanish  invention — for  Spain  still  cherishes 
the  hope  of  leveling  the  Pyrenees,  Sire,  Calvinism  can  save 
France  by  erecting  a  moral  barrier  between  this  nation  and 
one  that  aims  at  the  empire  of  the  world.  If  the  Queen- 
mother  finds  herself  in  banishment,  she  will  throw  herself 
on  Spain  and  the  Guises." 

"Gentlemen,"  said  the  King,  "I  will  have  you  to  know 
that,  with  your  help,  and  with  peace  established  on  a  basis 
of  confidence,  I  will  undertake  to  make  every  soul  in  the 
kingdom  quake.  By  God  and  every  sacred  relic !  it  is  time 
that  the  Eoyal  authority  should  assert  ^itself.  Understand 
this  clearly;  so  far,  my  mother  is  right,  power  is  slipping 
from  your  grasp,  as  it  is  from  mine.  Your  estates,  your  priv- 
ileges are  bound  to  the  throne;  when  you  have  allowed  re- 
ligion to  be  overthrown,  the  hands  you  are  using  as  tools 
will  turn  against  the  Monarchy  and  against  you. 

"I  have  had  enough  of  fighting  ideas  with  weapons  that 
cannot  touch  them.  Let  us  see  whether  Protestantism  can 
make  its  way  if  left  to  itself;  above  all,  let  us  see  what  the 
spirit  of  that  faction  means  to  attack.    The  Admiral,  God 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  363 

be  merciful  to  him,  was  no  enemy  of  mine.  He  swore  to  me 
that  he  would  restrain  the  revolt  within  the  limits  of  spiritual 
feeling,  and  in  the  temporal  kingdom  secure  mastery  to  the 
Eang  and  submissive  subjects.  Now,  gentlemen,  if  the  thing 
is  still  in  your  power,  set  an  example,  and  help  your  sovereign 
to  control  the  malcontents  who  are  disturbing  the  peace  of 
both  parties  alike.  War  robs  us  of  all  our  revenue,  and  ruins 
the  country ;  I  am  weary  of  this  troubled  State — so  much  so, 
that,  if  it  should  be  absolutely  necessary,  I  would  sacrifice  my 
mother.  I  would  do  more;  I  would  have  about  me  a  like 
number  of  Catholics  and  of  Protestants,  and  I  would  hang 
Louis  XL's  axe  over  their  heads  to  keep  them  equal.  If 
Messieurs  de  Guise  plot  a  Holy  Alliance  which  endangers  the 
Crown,  the  executioner  shall  begin  on  them. 

"I  understand  the  griefs  of  my  people,  and  am  quite 
read)"-  to  cut  freely  at  the  nobles  who  bring  trouble  on  our 
country.  I  care  little  for  questions  of  conscience;  I  mean 
henceforth  to  have  submissive  subjects  who  will  work,  under 
my  rule,  at  the  prosperity  of  the  State. 

"Gentlemen,  I  give  you  ten  days  to  treat  with  your  ad- 
herents, to  break  up  your  plots,  and  return  to  me,  who  will 
be  a  father  to  you.  If  you  are  refractory,  you  will  see  great 
changes.  I  shall  make  use  of  smaller  men  who,  at  my  bid- 
ding, will  rush  upon  the  great  lords.  I  will  follow  the  ex- 
ample of  a  king  who  pacified  his  realm  by  striking  down 
greater  men  than  you  are  who  dared  to  defy  him.  If  Catholic 
troops  are  wanting,  I  can  appeal  to  my  brother  of  Spain  to 
defend  a  threatened  throne;  nay,  and  if  I  need  a  Minister 
to  carry  out  my  will,  he  will  lend  me  the  Duke  of  Alva." 

"In  that  event.  Sire,  we  can  find  Germans  to  fight  your 
Spaniards,"  said  one  of  the  party. 

"I  may  remind  you,  coiisin,"  said  Charles  IX.  coldly,  "that 
my  wife's  name  is  Elizabeth  of  Austria;  your  allies  on  that 
side  might  fail  you.  But  take  my  advice;  let  us  fight  this 
alone  without  calling  in  the  foreigner.  You  are  the  object 
of  m}'^  mother's  hatred,  and  you  care  enough  for  me  to  play 
the  part  of  second  in  my  duel  with  her — well,  then,  listen. 


384  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDIOI 

You  stand  so  high  in  my  esteem,  that  I  offer  you  the  office  of 
High  Constable;  you  will  not  betray  us  as  the  other  has 
done." 

The  Prince  thus  addressed  took  the  King's  hand  in  a 
friendly  grasp,  exclaiming: 

"God's  'ounds,  brother,  that  is  indeed  forgiving  evil !  But,' 
Sire,  the  head  cannot  move  without  the  tail,  and  our  tail 
is  hard  to  drag  along.  Give  us  more  than  ten  days.  We 
still  need  at  least  a  month  to  make  the  rest  hear  reason.  By 
the  end  of  that  time  we  shall  be  the  masters." 

"A  month,  so  be  it;  Villeroy  is  my  only  plenipotentiary. 
Take  no  word  but  his,  whatever  any  one  may  say." 

"One  month,"  said  the  three  other  gentlemen;  "that  will 
be  enough  time." 

"Gentlemen,"  said  the  King,  "we  are  but  five,  all  men  of 
mettle.  If  there  is  any  treachery,  we  shall  know  with  whom 
to  deal." 

The  three  gentlemen  left  the  King  with  every  mark  of  deep 
respect  and  kissed  his  hand. 

As  the  King  recrossed  the  Seine,  four  o'clock  was  striking 
by  the  Louvre  clock. 

Queen  Catherine  was  still  up. 

"My  mother  is  not  gone  to  bed,"  said  Charles  to  the  Comte 
de  Solem. 

"She  too  has  her  forge,"  said  the  German. 

"My  dear  Count,  what  must  you  think  of  a  king  who  is 
reduced  to  conspiracy?"  said  Charles  IX.  bitterly,  after  a 
pause. 

"I  think.  Sire,  that  if  you  would  only  allow  me  to  throw 
that  woman  into  the  river,  as  our  young  friend  said,  FrancCji 
would  soon  be  at  peace."  » 

"Parricide! — and  after  Saint-Bartholomew's!"  said  the 
King.  "No,  no — Exile.  Once  fallen,  my  mother  would  not 
have  an  adherent  or  a  partisan." 

**Well,  then.  Sire,"  the  Count  went  on,  "allow  me  to  take 
her  into  custody  now,  at  once,  and  escort  her  beyond  the 
frontier;  for  by  to-morrow  she  will  have  won  you  round." 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  265 

*Well,"  said  the  King,  "come  to  my  forge ;  no  one  can  hear 
us  there.  Besides,  I  am  anxious  that  my  mother  should  know 
nothing  of  the  arrest  of  the  Euggieri.  If  she  knows  I  am 
"within,  the  good  lady  will  suspect  nothing,  and  we  will  con- 
cert the  measures  for  arresting  her." 

When,  the  King,  attended  by  Solern,  went  into  the  low 
room  which  served  as  his  workshop,  he  smiled  as  he  pointed 
to  his  forge  and  various  tools. 

"I  do  not  suppose,"  said  he,  "that  of  all  the  kings  France 
may  ever  have,  there  will  be  another  with  a  taste  for  such  a 
craft.  But  when  I  am  really  King,  I  shall  not  forge  swords ; 
they  shall  all  be  sheathed." 

"Sire,"  said  the  Comte  de  Solern,  "the  fatigues  of  tennis, 
your  work  at  the  forge,  hunting,  and — may  I  say  it? — love- 
making,  are  chariots  lent  you  by  the  Devil  to  hasten  your 
journey  to  Saint-Denis." 

"Ah,  Solern !"  said  the  King  sadly,  "if  only  you  could  feel 
the  fire  they  have  set  burning  in  my  heart  and  body.  Nothing 
can  slake  it. — Are  you  sure  of  the  men  who  are  guarding 
the  Euggieri?" 

"As  sure  as  of  myself." 

"Well,  in  the  course  of  this  day  I  shall  have  made  up  my 
mind.  Think  out  the  means  of  acting,  and  I  will  give  you 
my  final  instructions  at  five  this  evening,  at  Madame  de 
Belleville's.*' 

The  first  gleams  of  daybreak  were  struggling  with  the 
lights  in  the  King's  workshop,  where  the  Comte  de  Solern 
had  left  him  alone,  when  he  heard  the  door  open  and  saw 
his  mother,  looking  like  a  ghost  in  the  gloom.  Though 
Charles  IX.  was  highly  strung  and  nervous,  he  did  not  start, 
although  under  the  circumstances  this  apparition  had  an 
ominous  and  grotesque  aspect.  ! 

"Monsieur,"  said  she,  "you  are  killing  yourself " 

"I  am  fulfilling  my  horoscopes,"  he  retorted,  with  a  bitter 
Bmile.    "But  you,  madame,  are  you  as  ill  as  I  am?" 

"We  have  both  watched  through  the  night,  monsieur,  but 


266  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

with  very  different  purpose.  When  you  were  setting  out 
to  confer  with  your  bitterest  enemies  in  the  open  night,  and 
hiding  it  from  your  mother,  with  the  connivance  of  Tavannes 
and  the  Gondis,  with  whom  you  pretended  to  be  scouring  the 
town,  I  was  reading  dispatches  which  prove  that  a  terrible 
conspiracy  is  hatching,  in  which  your  brother  the  Due 
d'Alengon  is  implicated  with  your  brother-in-law,  the  King  of 
Navarre,  the  Prince  de  Conde,  and  half  the  nobility  of  your 
kingdom.  Their  plan  is  no  less  than  to  snatch  the  Crown 
from  you  by  taking  possession  of  your  person.  These  gentle- 
men have  already  a  following  of  fifty  thousand  men,  all  good 
soldiers.'* 

"Indeed !"  said  the  King  incredulously. 

"Your  brother  is  becoming  a  Huguenot,"  the  Queen 
went  on. 

"My  brother  joining  the  Huguenots  ?"  cried  Charles,  bran- 
dishing the  iron  bar  he  held. 

"Yes.  The  Due  d'Alengon,  a  Huguenot  at  heart,  is  about 
to  declare  himself.  Your  sister,  the  Queen  of  Navarre,  has 
scarcely  a  tinge  of  affection  left  for  you.  She  loves  Monsieui 
le  Due  d'Alengon,  she  loves  Bussy,  and  she  also  loves  littlG 
la  Mole." 

'^hat  a  large  heart !"  said  the  King. 

"Little  la  Mole,  to  grow  great,"  the  Queen  went  on,  "can 
think  of  no  better  means  than  making  a  King  of  France  to 
his  mind.    Then,  it  is  said,  he  is  to  be  High  Constable." 

"That  damned  Margot !"  cried  the  King.  "This  is  what 
comes  of  her  marrying  a  heretic " 

"That  would  be  nothing ;  but  then  there  is  the  head  of  the 
younger  branch,  whom  you  have  placed  near  the  throne 
against  my  warnings,  and  who  only  wants  to  see  you  all  kill 
each  other !  The  House  of  Bourbon  is  the  enemy  of  the 
House  of  Valois.  Mark  this,  monsieur,  a  younger  branch 
'must  always  be  kept  in  abject  poverty,  for  it  is  born  with 
the  spirit  of  conspiracy,  and  it  is  folly  to  give  it  weapons 
when  it  has  none,  or  to  leave  them  in  its  possession  when  it 
takes  them.     The  younger  branches  must  be  impotent  for 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE*  MBDIOI  267 

mischief — that  is  the  law  of  sovereignty.  The  sultans  of 
Asia  observe  it. 

"The  proofs  are  upstairs  in  my  closet,  whither  I  begged 
you  to  follow  me  when  we  parted  last  night,  but  you  had 
other  projects.  Within  a  month,  if  we  do  not  take  a  high 
hand,  your  fate  will  be  that  of  Charles  the  Simple." 

"Within  a  month  I"  exclaimed  Charles,  amazed  at  the 
coincidence  of  this  period  with  the  term  fixed  by  the  princes 
that  very  night.  "In  a  month  we  shall  be  the  masters," 
thought  he  to  himself,  repeating  their  words.  "You  have 
proofs,  madame?"  he  asked  aloud. 

"They  are  unimpeachable,  monsieur;  they  are  supplied 
by  my  daughter  Marguerite.  Terrified  by  the  probable  out- 
come of  such  a  coalition,  in  spite  of  her  weakness  for  your 
brother  d'Alengon,  the  throne  of  the  Valois  lay,  for  once, 
nearer  to  her  heart  than  all  her  amours.  She  asks  indeed, 
as  the  reward  of  her  revelation,  that  la  Mole  shall  go  scot 
free;  but  that  popinjay  seems  to  me  to  be  a  rogue  we  ought 
to  get  rid  of,  as  well  as  the  Comte  de  Coconnas,  your  brother 
d'Alengon's  right-hand  man.  As  to  the  Prince  de  Conde, 
that  boy  would  agree  to  anything  so  long  as  I  may  be  flung 
into  the  river;  I  do  not  know  if  that  is  his  idea  of  a  hand- 
some return  on  his  wedding-day  for  the  pretty  wife  I  got 
him. 

"This  is  a  serious  matter,  monsieur.  You  spoke  of  predic- 
tions !  I  know  of  one  which  says  that  the  Bourbons  will 
possess  the  throne  of  the  Valois;  and  if  we  do  not  take  care, 
it  will  be  fulfilled.  Do  not  be  vexed  with  your  sister,  she  has 
acted  well  in  this  matter." 

"My  son,"  she  went  on,  after  a  pause,  with  an  assumption 
of  tenderness  in  her  tone,  "many  evil-minded  persons,  in 
the  interest  of  the  Guises,  want  to  sow  dissension  between 
you  and  me,  though  we  are  the  only  two  persons  in  the  realm 
whose  interests  are  identical.  Eeflect.  You  blame  yourself 
now,  I  know,  for  Saint-Bartholomew's  night;  you  blame  me 
for  persuading  you  to  it.  But  Catholicism,  monsieur,  ought 
to  be  the  bond  of  Spain,  France,  and  Italy,  three  nations 


268  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE*  MEDICI 

which  by  a  secretly  and  skilfully  worked  scheme  may,  in  the 
course  of  time,  be  united  under  the  House  of  Valois.  Do  not 
forfeit  your  chances  by  letting  the  cord  slip  which  includes 
these  three  kingdoms  in  the  pale  of  the  same  faith. 

"Why  should  not  the  Valois  and  the  Medici  carry  out,  to 
their  great  glory,  the  project  of  Charles  V.,  who  lost  his  head  ? 
Let  those  descendants  of  Jane  the  Crazy  people  the  new 
world  which  they  are  grasping  at.  The  Medici,  masters  of 
Florence  and  Eome,  will  subdue  Italy  to  your  rule ;  they  will 
secure  all  its  advantages  by  a  treaty  of  commerce  and  alliance, 
and  recognize  you  as  their  liege  lord  for  the  fiefs  of  Piedmont, 
the  Milanese,  and  Naples  over  which  you  have  rights.  These, 
monsieur,  are  the  reasons  for  the  war  to'the  death  we  are 
waging  with  the  Huguenots.  Why  do  you  compel  us  to  repeat 
these  things  ? 

"Charlemagne  made  a  mistake  when  he  pushed  northwards. 
France  is  a  body  of  which  the  heart  is  on  the  Gulf  of  Lyons, 
and  whose  two  arms  are  Spain  and  Italy.  Thus  we  should 
command  the  Mediterranean,  which  is  like  a  basket  into 
which  all  the  wealth  of  the  East  is  poured  to  the  benefit  of 
the  Venetians  now,  in  the  teeth  of  Philip  II. 

"And  if  the  friendship  of  the  Medici  and  your  inherited 
rights  can  thus  entitle  you  to  hope  for  Italy,  force,  or  alliance, 
or  perhaps  inheritance,  may  give  you  Spain.  There  you  must 
step  in  before  the  ambitious  House  of  Austria,  to  whom  the 
Guelphs  would  have  sold  Italy,  and  who  still  dream  of  pos- 
sessing Spain.  Though  your  wife  is  a  daughter  of  that  line, 
humble  Austria,  hug  her  closely  to  stifle  her !  There  lie  the 
enemies  of  your  dominion,  since  from  thence  comes  aid  for 
the  Reformers. — Do  not  listen  to  men  who  would  profit  by  our 
disagreement,  and  who  fill  your  head  with  trouble  by  repre- 
eenting  me  as  your  chief  enemy  at  home.  Have  I  hindered 
you  from  having  an  heir  ?  Is  it  my  fault  that  your  mistress 
has  a  son  and  your  wife  only  a  daughter  ?  Why  have  you  not 
by  this  time  three  sons,  who  would  cut  off  all  this  sedition  at 
the  root? — Is  it  my  part,  monsieur,  to  reply  to  these  ques' 
tions  ?  If  you  had  a  son,  would  Monsieur  d*Alen§on  conspire 
against  you  ?" 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  269 

As  she  spoke  these  words,  Catherine  fixed  her  eyes  on 
Charles  IX.  with  the  fascinating  gaze  of  a  bird  of  prey  on 
its  victim.  The  daughter  of  the  Medici  was  beautiful  in  her 
way;  her  real  feelings  illumined  her  face,  which,  like  that 
of  a  gambler  at  the  green-table,  was  radiant  with  ambitious 
greed.  Charles  IX.  saw  her  no  longer  as  the  mother  of  one 
man,  but,  as  she  had  been  called,  the  mother  of  armies  and 
empires  {mater  castrorum).  Catherine  had  spread  the 
I  pinions  of  her  genius,  and  was  boldly  soaring  in  the  realm 
of  high  politics  of  the  Medici  and  the  Valois,  sketching  the 
vast  plans  which  had  frightened  Henri  II.,  and  which,  trans- 
mitted by  the  Medici  to  Richelieu,  were  stored  in  the  Cabinet 
of  the  House  of  Bourbon.  But' Charles  IX.,  seeing  his  mother 
take  so  many  precautions,  supposed  them  to  be  necessary, 
and  wondered  to  what  end  she  was  taking  them.  He  looked 
down;  he  hesitated;  his  distrust  was  not  to  be  dispelled  by 
words. 

Catherine  was  astonished  to  see  what  deeply  founded  sus- 
picion lurked  in  her  son's  heart. 

"Well,  monsieur,"  she  went  on,  "do  you  not  choose  to  un- 
derstand me?  What  are  we,  you  and  I,  compared  with  the 
eternity  of  a  royal  Crown?  Do  you  suspect  me  of  any  pur- 
poses but  those  which  must  agitate  us  who  dwell  in  the  sphere 
whence  empires  are  governed?" 

"Madame,"  said  he,  "I  will  follow  you  to  your  closet — we 
must  act " 

"Act  ?"  cried  Catherine.  "Let  them  go  their  way  and  take 
them  in  the  act;  the  law  will  rid  you  of  them.  For  God's 
sake,  monsieur,  let  them  see  us  smiling." 

The  Queen  withdrew.  The  King  alone  remained  standing 
for  a  minute,  for  he  had  sunk  into  extreme  dejection. 
)  "On  which  side  are  the  snares?"  he  said  aloud.  "Is  it  she 
who  is  deceiving  me,  or  they?  What  is  the  better  policy? 
Deus!  discerne  causam  meam"  he  cried,  with  tears  in  his 
eyes.  "Life  is  a  burden  to  me.  Whether  natural  or  com- 
pulsory, I  would  rather  meet  death  than  these  contradictory 
torments,"  he  added,  and  he  struck  the  hammer  on  his  anvil 


270  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

with  such  violence  that  the  vaults  of  the  Louvre  quaked. 
"Great  God!"  he  exclaimed,  going  out  and  looking  up  at 
the  sky,  "Thou  for  whose  holy  religion  I  am  warring,  give 
me  the  clearness  of  Thine  eyes  to  see  into  my  mother's  heart 
by  questioning  the  Kuggieri." 

The  little  house  inhabited  by  the  Lady  of  Belleville,  where 
Charles  had  left  his  prisoners,  was  the  last  but  one  in  the 
Eue  de  I'Autruche,  near  the  Eue  Saint-Honore.  The  street- 
gate,  guarded  by  two  little  lodges  built  of  brick,  looked  very 
plain  at  a  time  when  gates  and  all  their  accessories  were  so 
elaborately  treated.  The  entrance  consisted  of  two  stone 
pillars,  diamond-cut,  and  the  architrave  was  graced  with  the 
reclining  figure  of  a  woman  holding  a  cornucopia.  The  gate, 
of  timber  covered  with  heavy  iron  scroll-work,  had  a  wicket 
peephole  at  the  level  of  the  eye  for  spying  any  one  who  de- 
sired admittance.  In  each  lodge  a  porter  lived,  and  Charles* 
caprice  insisted  that  a  gatekeeper  should  be  on  the  watch  day 
and  night. 

There  was  a  little  courtyard  in  front  of  the  house  paved 
with  Venetian  mosaic.  At  that  time,  when  carriages  had  not 
been  invented,  and  ladies  rode  on  horseback  or  in  litters,  the 
courtyards  could  be  splendid  with  no  fear  of  injury  from 
horses  or  vehicles.  We  must  constantly  bear  these  facts  in 
mind  to  understand  the  narrowness  of  the  streets,  the  small 
extent  of  the  forecourts,  and  various  other  details  of  the 
dwellings  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

The  house,  of  one  story  above  the  ground  floor,  had  at  the 
top  a  sculptured  frieze,  on  which  rested  a  roof  sloping  up 
from  all  the  four  sides  to  a  flat  space  at  the  top.  The  sides 
were  pierced  by  dormer-windows  adorned  with  architraves 
and  side-posts,  which  some  great  artist  had  chiseled  into  deli- 
cate arabesques.  All  the  three  windows  of  the  first-floor 
rooms  were  equally  conspicuous  for  this  embroidery  in  stone, ' 
thrown  into  relief  by  the  red-brick  walls.  On  the  ground 
floor  a  double  flight  of  outside  steps,  elegantly  sculptured — the 
balcony  being  remarkable  for  a  true  lovers'  knot — led  to  the 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  271 

house  door,  decorated  in  the  Venetian  style  with  stone  cut 
into  pointed  lozenges,  a  form  of  ornament  that  was  repeated 
on  the  window-jambs  on  each  side  of  the  door. 

A  garden  laid  out  in  the  fashion  of  the  time,  and  full  of 
rare  flowers,  occupied  a  space  behind  the  house  of  equal  ex- 
tent with  the  forecourt,  A  vine  hung  over  the  walls.  A 
silver  pine  stood  in  the  centre  of  a  grass  plot ;  the  flower  bor- 
ders were  divided  from  the  turf  by  winding  paths  leading  to 
a  little  bower  of  clipped  yews  at  the  further  end.  The  garden 
walls,  covered  with  a  coarse  mosaic  of  colored  pebbles,  pleased 
the  eye  by  a  richness  of  color  that  harmonized  with  the  hues 
of  the  flowers.  The  garden  front  of  the  house,  like  the  front 
to  the  court,  had  a  pretty  balcony  from  the  middle  window 
over  the  door;  and  on  both  fagades  alike  the  architectural 
treatment  of  this  middle  window  was  carried  up  to  the  frieze 
of  the  cornice,  with  a  bow  that  gave  it  the  appearance  of  a 
lantern.  The  sills  of  the  other  windows  were  inlaid  with  fine 
marbles  let  into  the  stone. 

Notwithstanding  the  perfect  taste  evident  in  this  building, 
it  had  a  look  of  gloom.  It  was  shut  out  from  the  open  day  by 
neighboring  houses  and  the  roofs  of  the  Hotel  d'Alengon, 
which  cast  their  shadow  over  the  courtyard  and  garden; 
then  absolute  silence  prevailed.  Still,  this  silence,  this  sub- 
dued light,  this  solitude,  were  restful  to  a  soul  that  could  give 
itself  up  to  a  single  thought,  as  in  a  cloister  where  we  may 
meditate,  or  in  a  snug  home  where  we  may  love. 

Who  can  fail  now  to  conceive  of  the  interior  elegance  of 
this  dwelling,  the  only  spot  in  all  his  kingdom  where  the 
last  Valois  but  one  could  pour  out  his  heart,  confess  his  suf- 
ferings, give  play  to  his  taste  for  the  arts,  and  enjoy  the 
poetry  he  loved — pleasures  denied  him  by  the  cares  of  his 
most  ponderous  royalty.  There  alone  were  his  lofty  soul 
and  superior  qualities  appreciated;  there  alone,  for  a  few 
brief  months,  the  last  of  his  life,  could  he  know  the  joys  of 
fatherhood,  to  which  he  abandoned  himself  with  the  frenzy 
which  his  presentiment  of  an  imminent  and  terrible  death 
lent  to  all  his  actions. 


272  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

In  the  afternoon  of  this  day,  Marie  was  finishing  her  toilet 
in  her  oratory — the  ladies'  houdoir  of  that  time.  She  was 
arranging  the  curls  of  her  fine  black  hair,  so  as  to  leave  a 
few  locks  to  turn  over  a  new  velvet  coif,  and  was  looking  at- 
tentively at  herself  in  the  mirror. 

"It  is  nearly  four  o'clock!  That  interminable  Council 
must  be  at  an  end  by  now,"  said  she  to  herself.  "Jacob  is 
back  from  the  Louvre,  where  they  are  greatly  disturbed  by 
reason  of  the  number  of  councillors  convened,  and  by  the 
duration  of  the  sitting.  What  can  have  happened,  some  dis- 
aster ?  Dear  Heaven !  does  he  know  how  the  spirit  is  worn 
by  waiting  in  vain?  He  is  gone  hunting,  perhaps.  If  he  is 
amused,  all  is  well.  If  I  see  him  happy,  I  shall  forget  my 
sorrows " 

She  pulled  down  her  bodice  round  her  waist,  that  there 
might  not  be  a  wrinkle  in  it,  and  turned  to  see  how  her  dress 
fitted  in  profile;  but  then  she  saw  the  King  reclining  on  a 
couch.  The  carpeted  floors  deadened  the  sound  of  footsteps 
so  effectually,  that  he  had  come  in  without  being  heard. 

"You  startled  me,"  she  said,  with  a  cry  of  surprise,  which 
she  instantly  checked. 

"You  were  thinking  of  me,  then?"  said  the  King. 

"When  am  I  not  thinking  of  you  ?"  she  asked  him,  sitting 
down  by  his  side. 

She  took  off  his  cap  and  cloak,  and  passed  her  hands 
through  his  hair  as  if  to  comb  it  with  her  fingers.  Charles 
submitted  without  speaking.  Marie  knelt  down  to  study  her 
royal  Master's  pale  face,  and  discerned  in  it  the  lines  of 
terrible  fatigue  and  of  a  more  devouring  melancholy  than 
any  she  had  ever  been  able  to  scare  away.  She  checked  a 
tear,  and  kept  silence,  not  to  irritate  a  grief  she  as  yet  knew 
nothing  of  by  some  ill-chosen  word.  She  did  what  tender 
wives  do  in  such  cases ;  she  kissed  the  brow  seamed  with  pre- 
cocious wrinkles  and  the  hollow  cheeks,  trying  to  breathe  the 
freshness  of  her  own  spirit  into  that  careworn  soul  throigh 
its  infusion  into  gentle  caresses,  which,  however,  had  no  ef- 
fect.   She  raised  her  head  to  the  level  of  the  King's,  embrac- 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  273 

ing  him  fondly  with  her  slender  arms,  and  then  laid  her 
face  on  his  laboring  breast,  waiting  for  the  opportune  moment 
to  question  the  stricken  man. 

"My  Chariot,  will  you  not  tell  your  poor,  anxious  friend 
what  are  the  thoughts  that  darken  your  brow  and  take  the 
color  from  your  dear,  red  lips?" 

''With  the  exception  of  Charlemagne,"  said  he,  in  a  dull, 
hollow  voice,  "every  King  of  France  of  the  name  of  Charles 
has  come  to  a  miserable  end." 

"Pooh !"  said  she.    "What  of  Charles  VIII.  ?" 

"In  the  prime  of  life,"  replied  the  King,  "the  poor  man 
knocked  his  head  against  a  low  doorway  in  the  chateau  d'Am- 
boise,  which  he  was  decorating  splendidly,  and  he  died  in 
dreadful  pain.    His  death  gave  the  Crown  to  our  branch." 

"Charles  VII.  reconquered  his  kingdom." 

"Child,  he  died" — and  the  King  lowered  his  voice — "of 
starvation,  in  the  dread  of  being  poisoned  by  the  Dauphin, 
who  had  already  caused  the  death  of  his  fair  Agnes.  The 
father  dreaded  his  son.    Now,  the  son  dreads  his  mother !" 

"Why  look  back  on  the  past?"  said  she,  remembering  the 
terrible  existence  of  Charles  VI. 

"Why  not,  dear  heart?  Kings  need  not  have  recourse  to 
diviners  to  read  the  fate  that  awaits  them;  they  have  only 
to  study  history.  I  am  at  this  time  engaged  in  trying  to 
escape  the  fate  of  Charles  the  Simple,  who  was  bereft  of  his 
crown,  and  died  in  prison  after  seven  years'  captivity." 

"Charles  V.  drove  out  the  English !"  she  cried  triumph- 
antly. 

"Not  he,  but  du  Guesclin;  for  he,  poisoned  by  Charles  of 
Navarre,  languished  in  sickness." 

"But  Charles  IV.  ?"  said  she. 

"He  married  three  times  and  had  no  heir,  in  spite  of  the? 
masculine  beauty  that  distinguished  the  sons  of  Philip  the 
Handsome.  The  first  Valois  dynasty  ended  in  him.  The 
second  Valois  will  end  in  the  same  way.  The  Queen 
has  only  brought  me  a  daughter,  and  I  shall  die  without  leav- 
ing any  child  to  come,  for  a  minority  would  be  the  greatest 


274  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE*  MEDICI 

misfortune  that  could  befall  the  kingdom.  Besides,  if  I  had 
a  son,  would  he  live  ? — Charles  is  a  name  of  ill-omen,  Charle- 
magne exhausted  all  the  luck  attending  it.  If  I  could  be 
King  of  France  again,  I  would  not  be  called  Charles  X." 

"Who  then  aims  at  your  crown  ?" 

"My  brother  d'Alengon  is  plotting  against  me.  I  see  ene- 
mies on  every  side '' 

"Monsieur,"  said  Marie,  with  an  irresistible  pout.  "Tell 
me  some  merrier  tales." 

"My  dearest  treasure,"  said  the  King  vehemently,  "never 
call  me  Monsieur,  even  in  jest.  You  remind  me  of  my  mother, 
who  incessantly  offends  me  with  that  word.  I  feel  as  if  she 
deprived  me  of  my  crown.  She  says  'My  son'  to  the  Due 
d'Anjou,  that  is  to  say,  the  King  of  Poland." 

"Sire,"  said  Marie,  folding  her  hands  as  if  in  prayer, 
"there  is  a  realm  where  you  are  adored,  which  your  Majesty 
fills  entirely  with  glory  and  strength;  and  there  the  word 
Monsieur  means  my  gentle  lord." 

She  unclasped  her  hands,  and  with  a  pretty  action  pointed 
to  her  heart.  The  words  were  so  sweetly  musical — musiquees, 
to  use  an  expression  of  the  period,  applied  to  love  songs — that 
Charles  took  Marie  by  the  waist,  raised  her  with  the  strength 
for  which  he  was  noted,  seated  her  on  his  knee,  and  gently 
rubbed  his  forehead  against  the  curls  his  mistress  had  ar- 
ranged with  such  care. 

Marie  thought  this  a  favorable  moment;  she  ventured  on 
a  kiss  or  two,  which  Charles  allowed  rather  than  accepted; 
then,  between  two  kisses,  she  said : 

"If  my  people  told  the  truth,  you  were  scouring  Paris  all 
night,  as  in  the  days  when  you  played  the  scapegrace  younger 
son?" 

"Yes,"  said  the  King,  who  sat  lost  in  thought. 

"Did  not  you  thrash  the  watch  and  rob  certain  good  citi- 
zens?— And  who  are  the  men  placed  under  my  guard,  and 
who  are  such  criminals  that  you  have  forbidden  all  communi- 
cation with  them?  No  girl  was  ever  barred  in  with  greater 
severity  than  these  men,  who  have  had  neither  food  nor  drink. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  275 

Solern's  Germans  have  not  allowed  any  one  to  go  near  the 
room  where  you  left  them.  Is  it  a  joke  ?  Or  is  it  a  serious 
matter?" 

"Yes/'  said  the  King,  rousing  himself  from  his  reverie, 
"last  night  I  went  scampering  over  the  roofs  with  Tavannes 
and  the  Gondis.  I  wanted  to  have  the  company  of  my  old 
comrades  in  folly.  But  our  legs  are  not  what  they  were; 
we  did  not  dare  jump  across  the  streets.  However,  we  crossed 
'two  courtyards  by  leaping  from  roof  to  roof.  The  last  time, 
however,  when  we  alighted  on  a  gable  close  by  this,  as  we 
clung  to  the  bar  of  a  chimney,  we  decided,  Tavannes  and  I, 
that  we  could  not  do  it  again.  If  either  of  us  had  been  alone, 
he  would  not  have  tried  it," 

"You  were  the  first  to  jump,  I  will  wager." 

The  King  smiled. 

"I  know  why  you  risk  your  life  so," 

"Hah,  fair  sorceress !" 

"You  are  weary  of  life." 

"Begone  with  witchcraft!  I  am  haunted  by  it!"  said  the 
King,  grave  once  more. 

"My  witchcraft  is  love,"  said  she,  with  a  smile.  "Since 
the  happy  day  when  you  first  loved  me,  have  I  not  always 
guessed  your  thoughts?  And  if  you  will  suffer  me  to  say 
so,  the  thoughts  that  torment  you  to-day  are  not  worthy  of  a 
King." 

"Am  I  a  King  ?"  said  he  bitterly. 

"Can  you  not  be  King  ?  What  did  Charles  VII.  do,  whose 
name  you  bear?  He  listened  to  his  mistress,  my  lord,  and 
he  won  back  his  kingdom,  which  was  invaded  by  the  English 
then  as  it  is  now  by  the  adherents  of  the  New  Eeligion.  Your 
last  act  of  State  opened  the  road  you  must  follow:  Exter- 
minate heresy." 

'*You  used  to  blame  the  stratagem,"  said  Charles,  "and 
now " 

"It  is  accomplished,"  she  put  in.  "Besides,  I  am  of  Mad- 
ame Catherine's  opinion.  It  was  better  to  do  it  yourself  than 
to  leave  it  to  the  Guises." 


276  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE*  MEDICI 

"Charles  VII.  had  only  men  to  fight  against,  and  I  have 
to  battle  with  ideas,"  the  King  went  on.  "You  may  kill  men ; 
you  cannot  kill  words !  The  Emperor  Charles  V.  gave  up 
the  task;  his  son,  Don  Philip,  is  spending  himself  in  the  at- 
tempt. We  shall  die  of  it,  we  kings.  On  whom  can  I  de- 
pend? On  my  right,  with  the  Catholics  I  find  the  Guises 
threatening  me;  on  my  left,  the  Calvinists  will  never  forgive 
the  death  of  my  poor  Father  Coligny,  nor  the  blood-letting 
of  August ;  besides,  they  want  to  be  rid  of  us  altogether.  And 
in  front  of  me,  my  mother " 

"Arrest  her;  reign  alone,"  said  Marie,  whispering  in  his 
ear.  » 

"I  wanted  to  do  so  yesterday — ^but  I  do  not  to-day.  You 
speak  of  it  lightly  enough." 

"There  is  no  such  great  distance  between  the  daughter 
of  an  apothecary  and  the  daughter  of  a  leech,"  said  Marie 
Touchet,  who  would  often  laugh  at  the  parentage  falsely 
given  "her. 

The  King  knit  his  brows. 

"Marie,  take  no  liberties.  Catherine  de'  Medici  is  my 
mother,  and  you  ought  to  tremble  at " 

"But  what  are  you  afraid  of?" 

"Poison !"  cried  the  King,  beside  himself. 

"Poor  boy !"  said  Marie,  swallowing  her  tears,  for  so  much 
strength  united  to  so  much  weakness  moved  her  deeply. 
"Oh !"  she  went  on,  'Tiow  you  make  me  hate  Madame  Cath- 
erine, who  used  to  seem  so  kind;  but  her  kindness  seems  to 
be  nothing  but  perfidy.  Why  does  she  do  me  so  much  good 
and  you  so  much  evil?  While  I  was  away  in  Dauphine  I 
heard  a  great  many  things  about  the  beginning  of  your  reign 
which  you  had  concealed  from  me;  and  the  Queen  your 
mother  seems  to  have  been  the  cause  of  all  your  misfortunes." 

"How?"  said  the  King,  with  eager  interest. 

"Women  whose  soul  and  intentions  are  pure  rule  the  men 
they  love  through  their  virtues ;  but  women  who  do  not  truly 
wish  them  well  find  a  motive  power  in  their  evil  inclinations. 
Now  the  Queen  has  turned  many  fine  qualities  in  you  into 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  277 

vices,  and  made  you  believe  that  your  bad  ones  were  virtues. 
Was  that  acting  a  mother's  part  ? — Be  a  tyrant  like  Louis  XI., 
make  everybody  dreadfully  afraid  of  you,  imitate  Don  Philip, 
banish  the  Italians,  hunt  out  the  Guises,  and  confiscate  the 
estates  of  the  Calvinists;  you  will  rise  to  stand  in  solitude, 
and  you  will  save  the  Crown.  The  moment  is  favorable ;  your 
brother  is  in  Poland." 

**We  are  two  infants  in  politics,"  said  Charles  bitterly. 
**We  only  know  how  to  love.  Alas !  dear  heart,  yesterday  1 
could  think  of  all  this;  I  longed  to  achieve  great  things. 
Puff !  my  mother  has  blown  down  my  house  of  cards.  From 
afar  difficulties  stand  out  as  clearly  as  mountain  peaks.  I 
say  to  myself,  'I  will  put  an  end  to  Calvinism ;  I  will  bring 
Messieurs  de  Guiye  to  their  senses ;  I  will  cut  adrift  from  the 
Court  of  Kome ;  I  will  rely  wholly  on  the  people  of  the  middle 
class ;'  in  short,  at  a  distance  everything  looks  easy,  but  when 
we  try  to  climb  the  mountains,  the  nearer  we  get,  the  more 
obstacles  we  discern. 

"Calvinism  in  itself  is  the  last  thing  the  party-leaders  care 
about;  and  the  Guises,  those  frenzied  Catholics,  would  be  in 
despair  if  the  Calvinists  were  really  exterminated.  Every 
man  thinks  of  his  own  interests  before  all  else,  and  religious 
opinions  are  but  a  screen  for  insatiable  ambition.  Charles 
IX.'s  party  is  the  weakest  of  all;  those  of  the  King  of  Na- 
varre, of  the  King  of  Poland,  of  the  Due  d'Alengon,  of  the 
Condes,  of  the  Guises,  of  my  mother,  form  coalitions  against 
each  other,  leaving  me  alone  even  in  the  Council  Chamber. 
In  the  midst  of  so  many  elements  of  disturbance  my  mother 
is  the  stronger,  and  she  has  just  shown  me  that  my  plans  are 
inane.  We  are  surrounded  by  men  who  defy  the  law.  The 
axe  of  Louis  XL  of  which  you  speak  is  not  in  our  grasp.  The 
Parlement  would  never  sentence  the  Guises,  nor  the  King 
of  Navarre,  nor  the  Condes,  nor  my  brothers.  It  would  think 
it  was  setting  the  kingdom  in  a  blaze.  What  is  wanted  is  the 
courage  to  command  murder;  the  throne  must  come  to  that, 
with  these  insolent  wretches  who  have  nullified  justice;  but 
where  can  I  find  faithful  hands?  The  Council  I  held  this 
—19 


2T8  about  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

morning  disgusted  rae  with  everything — treachery  on  all 
sides,  antagonistic  interests  everywhere ! 

"I  am  tired  of  wearing  the  crown;  all  I  ask  is  to  die  in 
peace." 

And  he  sank  into  gloomy  somnolence. 

"Disgusted  with  everything !"  echoed  Marie  Touchet  sadly, 
but  respecting  her  lover's  heavy  torpor. 

Charles  was,  in  fact,  a  prey  to  utter  prostration  of  mind 
'and  body,  resulting  from  over-fatigue  of  every  faculty,  and 
enhanced  by  the  dejection  caused  by  the  vast  scale  of  his  mis- 
fortunes and  the  evident  impossibility  of  overcoming  them 
in  the  face  of  such  a  multiplicity  of  difficulties  as  genius  it- 
self takes  alarm  at.  The  King's  depression  was  proportionate 
to  the  height  to  which  his  courage  and  his  ideas  had  soared 
during  the  last  few  months ;  and  now  a  fit  of  nervous  melan- 
choly, part,  in  fact,  of  his  malady,  had  come  over  him  as  he 
l6ft  the  long  sitting  of  the  Council  he  had  held  in  his  closet. 
Marie  saw  that  he  was  suffering  from  a  crisis  when  everything 
is  irritating  and  importunate — even  love ;  so  she  remained  on 
her  knees,  her  head  in  the  King's  lap  as  he  sat  with  his  fingers 
buried  in  her  hair  without  moving,  without  speaking,  with- 
ous  sighing,  and  she  was  equally  still.  Charles  IX.  was  sunk 
in  the  lethargy  of  helplessness ;  and  Marie,  in  the  dark  despair 
of  a  loving  woman,  who  can  see  the  border-line  ahead  where 
love  must  end. 

Thus  the  lovers  sat  for  some  little  time  in  perfect  silence, 
in  the  mood  when  every  thought  is  a  wound,  when  the  clouds 
of  a  mental  storm  hide  even  the  remembrance  of  past  happi- 
ness. 

Marie  believed  herself  to  be  in  some  sort  to  blame  for  this 
terrible  dejection.  She  wondered,  not  without  alarm,  whether 
the  King's  extravagant  joy  at  welcoming  her  back,  and  the 
vehement  passion  she  could  not  contend  with,  were  not  help- 
ing to  wreck  his  mind  and  frame.  As  she  looked  up  at  her 
lover,  her  eyes  streaming  with  tears  that  bathed  her  face, 
she  saw  tears  in  his  eyes  too  and  on  his  colorless  cheeks.  This 
sympathy,  uniting  them  even  in  sorrow,  touched  Charles  IX. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  279 

BO  deeply,  that  he  started  up  like  a  horse  that  feels  the  spur. 
He  put  his  arm  round  Marie's  waist,  and  before  she  knew 
what  he  was  doing  had  drawn  her  down  on  the  couch. 

"I  will  be  King  no  more!"  he  said.  "I  will  be  nothing 
but  your  lover,  and  forget  everything  in  that  joy.  I  will  die 
happy,  and  not  eaten  up  with  the  cares  of  a  throne." 

The  tone  in  which  he  spoke,  the  fire  that  blazed  in  eyes, 
just  now  so  dull,  instead  of  pleasing  Marie,  gave  her  a  terrible 
pang;  at  that  moment  she  blamed  her  love  for  contributing 
to  the  illness  of  which  the  King  was  dying. 

"You  forget  your  prisoners,"  said  she,  starting  up  sud- 
denly. 

"What  do  I  care  about  the  men?  They  have  my  permis- 
sion to  kill  me." 

"What?    Assassins!"  said  she. 

"Do  not  be  uneasy,  we  have  them  safe,  dear  child. — Now, 
think  not  of  them,  but  of  me.    Say,  do  you  not  love  me  ?" 

"Sire !"  she  cried. 

"Sire !"  he  repeated,  flashing  sparks  from  his  eyes,  so  vio- 
lent was  his  first  surge  of  fury  at  his  mistress'  ill-timed  defer- 
ence.   "You  are  in  collusion  with  my  mother." 

"Great  God !"  cried  Marie,  turning  to  the  picture  over 
her  praying-chair,  and  trying  to  get  to  it  to  put  up  a  prayer. 
"Oh !  make  him  understand  me !" 

*^hat!"  said  the  King  sternly.  "Have  you  any  sin  on 
your  soul  ?" 

And  still  holding  her  in  his  arms,  he  looked  deep  into  her 
eyes.  "I  have  heard  of  the  mad  passion  of  one  d'Entragues 
for  you,"  he  went  on,  looking  wildly  at  her,  "and  since  their 
grandfather  Capitaine  Balzac  married  a  Visconti  of  Milan, 
those  rascals  hesitate  at  nothing.'* 

Marie  gave  the  King  such  a  look  of  pride  that  he  was 
ashamed.  Just  then  the  cry  was  heard  of  the  infant  Charles 
de  Valois  from  the  adjoining  room ;  he  was  just  awake,  and 
his  nurse  was  no  doubt  bringing  him  to  his  mother. 

"Come  in,  la  Bourguignonne,"  said  Marie,  taking  the  child 
from  his  nurse  and  bringing  him  to  the  King.     *^ou  are 


280  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDIOI 

more  of  a  child  than  he,"  she  said,  half  angry,  but  hall 
pleased. 

"He  is  a  fine  boy,"  said  Charles  IX.,  taking  his  son  in  his 
arms. 

"No  one  but  me  can  know  how  like  you  he  is,"  said  Marie. 
"He  has  your  smile  and  ways  already." 

"What,  so  young  ?"  said  the  King,  smiling. 

"Men  will  never  believe  such  things,"  said  she ;  'T)ut  look, 
my  Chariot,'  play  with  him,  look  at  him — now,  am  I  not 
right?" 

"It  is  true,"  said  the  King,  startled  by  a  movement  on  the 
infant's  part,  which  struck  him  as  the  miniature  reproduction 
of  a  trick  of  his  own. 

"Pretty  flower !"  said  his  mother.  "He  will  never  go  away 
from  me;  he  will  never  make  me  unhappy." 

The  King  played  with  the  child,  tossing  it,  kissing  it  with 
entire  devotion,  speaking  to  it  in  those  vague  and  foolish 
words,  the  onomatopoeia  of  mothers  and  nurses ;  his  voice  was 
childlike,  his  brow  cleared,  joy  came  back  to  his  saddened 
countenance;  and  when  Marie  saw  that  her  lover  had  for- 
gotten everything,  she  laid  her  head  on  his  shoulder  and 
whispered  in  his  ear: 

'^ill  not  you  tell  me,  my  Chariot,  why  you  put  assassins 
in  my  keeping,  and  who  these  men  are,  and  what  you  intend 
to  do  with  them?  And  whither  were  you  going  across  the 
roofs  ?    I  hope  there  was  no  woman  in  the  case." 

"Then  you  still  love  me  so  well  ?"  said  the  King,  caught  by 
the  bright  flash  of  one  of  those  questioning  looks  which 
women  can  give  at  a  critical  moment. 

"^'ou  could  doubt  me,"  replied  she,  as  the  tears  gathered 
under  her  beautiful  girlish  eyelids. 

"There  are  women  in  my  adventure,  but  they  are  witches. 
Where  was  I?" 

"We  were  quite  near  here,  on  the  gable  of  a  house,"  said 
Marie.    'In  what  street  ?" 

'T!n  the  Rue  Saint-Honore,  my  jewel,"  said  the  King,  who 
Beemed  to  have  recovered  himself,  and  who,  as  he  recalled  his 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  281 

ideas,  wanted  to  give  his  mistress  some  notion  of  the  scene 
that  was  about  to  take  place  here.  "As  I  crossed  it  in  pur- 
suit of  some  sport,  my  eyes  were  attracted  by  a  bright  light 
in  a  top  window  of  the  house  inhabited  by  Kene,  my  mother's 
perfumer  and  glover — ^yours  too,  the  whole  Court's.  I  have 
strong  suspicions  as  to  what  goes  on  in  that  man's  house,  and 
if  I  am  poisoned  that  is  where  the  poison  is  prepared." 

"I  give  him  up  to-morrow,"  said  Marie. 

"What,  you  have  still  dealt  with  him  since  I  left  him?" 
said  the  King.  "My  life  was  here,"  he  added  gloomily,  "and 
here  no  doubt  they  have  arranged  for  my  death." 

"But,  my  dear  boy,  I  have  but  just  come  home  from  Dau- 
phine  with  our  Dauphin,"  said  she,  with  a  smile,  "and  I 
have  bought  nothing  of  Rene  since  the  Queen  of  Navarre 
died. — Well,  go  on;  you  climbed  up  to   Rene's  roof ?" 

"Yes,"  the  King  went  on.  "In  a  moment  I,  followed  by 
Tavannes,  had  reached  a  spot  whence,  without  being  seen,  I 
could  see  into  the  devil's  kitchen,  and  note  certain  things 
which  led  me  to  take  strong  measures.  Do  you  ever  happen 
to  have  noticed  the  attics  that  crown  that  damned  Floren- 
tine's house?  All  the  windows  to  the  street  are  constantly 
kept  shut  excepting  the  last,  from  which  the  Hotel  de  Sois- 
sons  can  be  seen,  and  the  column  my  mother  had  erected  for 
her  astrologer  Cosmo  Ruggieri.  There  is  a  room  in  this  top 
story  with  a  corridor  lighted  from  the  inner  yard,  so  that  in 
order  to  see  what  is  being  done  within,  a  man  must  get  to  a 
perch  which  no  one  would  ever  think  of  climbing,  the  coping 
of  a  high  wall  which  ends  against  the  roof  of  Rene's  house. 
The  creatures  who  placed  the  alembics  there  to  distil  death, 
trusted  to  the  faint  hearts  of  the  Parisians  to  escape  inspec- 
tion; but  they  counted  without  their  Charles  de  Valois.  I 
crept  along  the  gutter,  and  supported  myself  against  the 
window  jamb  with  my  arm  round  the  neck  of  a  monkey  that 
is  sculptured  on  it." 

"And  what  did  you  see,  dear  heart  ?"  said  Marie,  in  alarm, 

"A  low  room  where  deeds  of  darkness  are  plotted,"  replied 
the  King.     "The  first  thing  on  which  my  eyes  fell  was  a  tall 


282  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

old  man  seated  in  a  chair,  with  a  magnificent  beard  like  old 
I'Hopital's,  and  dressed,  like  him,  in  black  velvet.  The  con- 
centrated rays  of  a  brightly  burning  lamp  fell  on  his  high 
forehead,  deeply  furrowed  by  hollow  lines,  on  a  crown  of  white 
hair  and  a  calm,  thoughtful  face,  pale  with  vigils  and  study. 
His  attention  was  divided  between  a  manuscript  on  parch- 
ment several  centuries  old,  and  two  lighted  stoves  on  which 
some  heretical  mixtures  were  cooking.  Neither  the  floor  nor 
the  ceiling  was  visible;  they  were  so  covered  with  animals 
hung  up  there,  skeletons,  dried  herbs,  minerals,  and  drugs, 
with  which  the  place  was  stuffed;  here  some  books  and  re- 
torts, with  chests  full  of  instruments  for  magic  and  astrology ; 
there  diagrams  for  horoscopes,  phials,  wax  figures,  and  per- 
haps the  poisons  he  concocts  for  Eene  in  payment  for  the 
shelter  and  hospitality  bestowed  on  him  by  my  mother's 
glover. 

"Tavannes  and  I  were  startled,  I  can  tell  you,  at  the  sight 
of  this  diabolical  arsenal;  for  merely  at  the  sight  of  it  one 
feels  spellbound,  and  but  that  my  business  is  to  be  King  of 
France,  I  should  have  been  frightened.  'Tremble  for  us 
both,'  said  I  to  Tavannes. 

"But  Tavannes'  eyes  were  riveted  on  the  most  mysterious 
object.  On  a  couch  by  the  old  man's  side  lay  a  girl  at  full 
length,  of  the  strangest  beauty,  as  long  and  slender  as  a 
snaJce,  as  white  as  an  ermine,  as  pale  as  death,  as  motion- 
less as  a  statue.  Perhaps  it  was  a  woman  just  dug  out  of  her 
grave,  for  she  seemed  to  be  still  wrapped  in  her  shroud;  her 
eyes  were  fixed,  and  I  could  not  see  her  breathe.  The  old 
wretch  paid  no  sort  of  heed  to  her.  I  watched  him  so  cu- 
riously that  his  spirit  I  believe  passed  into  me.  By  dint  of 
studying  him,  at  last  I  admired  that  searching  eye,  keen  and 
bold,  in  spite  of  the  chills  of  age;  that  mouth,  mobile  with,, 
thoughts  that  came  from  what  seemed  a  single  fixed  desire,' 
graven  in  a  myriad  wrinkles.  Everything  in  the  man 
spoke  of  a  hope  which  nothing  can  discourage  and  nothing 
dismay.  His  attitude,  motionless  but  full  of  thrilling  life, 
his  features  so  chiseled,  so  deeply  cut  by  a  passion  that  has 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  283 

done  the  work  of  the  sculptor's  tool,  that  mind  dead-set  on 
some  criminal  or  scientific  purpose,  that  searching  intelligence 
on  the  track  of  Nature  though  conquered  by  her,  and  bent, 
without  having  broken,  under  the  burden  of  an  enterprise 
it  will  never  give  up,  threatening  creation  with  fire  borrowed 
from  itself I  was  fascinated  for  a  moment. 

"That  old  man  was  more  a  King  than  I,  for  his  eye  saw 
the  whole  world  and  was  its  master.  I  am  determined  to  tem- 
per no  more  swords ;  I  want  to  float  over  abysses,  as  that  old 
man  does;  his  science  seems  to  me  a  sovereignty.  In  short, 
I  believe  in  these  occult  sciences." 

"You,  the  eldest  son,  and  the  defender  of  the  Holy  Cath- 
olic, Apostolic,  and  Koman  Church!"  cried ^arie. 

"I."  \ 

"Why,  what  has  come  over  you  ?  Go  on ;  I  will  be  fright- 
ened for  you,  and  you  shall  be  brave  for  me." 

"The  old  man  looked  at  the  clock  and  rose,"  the  King  went 
on.  "He  left  the  room,  how  I  could  not  see,  but  I  heard 
him  open  the  window  towards  the  Rue  Saint-Honore.  Pres- 
ently a  light  shone  out,  and  then  I  saw  another  light,  answer- 
ing to  the  old  man's,  by  which  we  could  perceive  Cosmo  Rug- 
gieri  .on  the  top  of  the  column. 

"  'Oh,  ho !  They  understand  each  other,'  said  I  to 
Tavannes,  who  at  once  thought  the  whole  affair  highly  sus- 
picious, and  was  quite  of  my  opinion  that  we  should  seize 
these  two  men,  and  at  once  make  a  search  in  their  abominable 
workshop.  But  before  proceeding  to  a  raid,  we  wanted  to 
see  what  would  happen.  By  the  end  of  a  quarter  of  an  hour 
the  door  of  the  laboratory  opened,  and  Cosmo  Ruggieri,  my 
mother's  adviser — the  bottomless  pit  in  which  all  the  Court 
secrets  are  buried,  of  whom  wives  crave  help  against  their 
husbands  and  their  lovers,  and  husbands  and  lovers  take  coun- 
sel against  faithless  women,  who  gains  money  out  of  the 
past  and  the  future,  taking  it  from  every  one,  who  sells 
horoscopes,  and  is  supposed  to  know  everything, — that  half- 
demon  came  in  saying  to  the  old  man,  'Good-evening, 
brother.' 


284  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

"He  had  with  him  a  horrible  little  old  woman,  toothless, 
hunchbacked,  crooked,  and  bent  like  a  lady's  marmoset,  but 
far  more  hideous;  she  was  wrinkled  like  a  withered  apple, 
her  skin  was  of  the  color  of  saffron,  her  chin  met  her  nose, 
her  mouth  was  a  hardly  visible  slit,  her  eyes  were  like  the 
black  spots  of  the  deuce  on  dice,  her  brow  expressed  a  bitter 
temper,  her  hair  fell  in  gray  locks  from  under  a  dirty  coif; 
she  walked  with  a  crutch;  she  stank  of  devilry  and  the  stake; 
and  she  frightened  us,  for  neither  Tavannes  nor  I  believed 
that  she  was  a  real  woman ;  God  never  made  one  so  horrible 
as  she. 

"She  sat  down  on  a  stool  by  the  side  of  the  fair  white  ser- 
pent with  whom  Tavannes  was  falling  in  love. 

"The  two  brothers  paid  no  heed  to  either  the  old  woman 
or  the  young  one,  who,  side  by  side,  formed  a  horrible  con- 
trast.   On  one  hand  life  in  death,  on  the  other  death  in  life." 

"My  sweet  poet !"  cried  Marie,  kissing  the  King. 

"  'Good-evening,  Cosmo,'  the  old  alchemist  replied.  And 
then  both  men  looked  at  the  stove. — 'What  is  the  power  of  the 
moon  to-night?'  the  old  man  asked  Cosmo. — 'Why,  caro  Lo- 
renzo,' my  mother's  astrologer  replied,  'the  high  tides  of  Sep- 
tember are  not  yet  over;  it  is  impossible  to  read  anything 
in  the  midst  of  such  confusion.' — 'And  what  did  the  Orient 
say  this  evening?' — 'He  has  just  discovered,'  said  Cosmo, 
'that  there  is  a  creative  force  in  the  air  which  gives  back  to 
the  earth  all  it  takes  from  it;  he  concludes,  with  us,  that 
everything  in  this  world  is  the  outcome  of  a  slow  transforma- 
tion, but  all  the  various  forms  are  of  one  and  the  same  mat- 
ter.'— 'That  is  what  my  predecessor  thought,'  replied  Lorenzo. 
'This  morning  Bernard  Palissy  was  telling  me  that  the  metals 
are  a  result  of  compression,  and  that  fire,  which  parts  all 
things,  joins  all  things  also ;  fire  has  the  power  of  compressing 
as  well  as  that  of  diffusing.  That  worthy  has  a  spark  of 
genius  in  him.' 

"Though  I  was  placed  where  I  could  not  be  seen,  Cosmo 
went  up  to  the  dead  girl,  and  taking  her  hand,  he  said, 
'There  is  some  one  near!  Who  is  it?' — 'The  King,'  said  she. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  285 

'1  at  once  showed  myself,  knocking  on  the  window-pane; 
Euggieri  opened  the  window,  and  I  jumped  into  this  wizard's 
kitchen,  followed  by  Tavannes. 

"  'Yes,  the  King,'  said  I  to  the  two  Florentines,  who 
seemed  terror-stricken.  'In  spite  of  your  furnaces  and  books, 
your  witches  and  your  learning,  you  could  not  divine  my 
visit. — I  am  delighted  to  see  the  famous  Lorenzo  Euggieri, 
of  whom  the  Queen  my  mother  speaks  with  such  mystery,' 
said  I  to  the  old  man,  who  rose  and  bowed. — 'You  are  in  this 
kingdom  without  my  consent,  my  good  man.  Whom  are  you 
working  for  here,  you,  who  from  father  to  son  have  dwelt  in 
the  heart  of  the  House  of  the  Medici?  Listen  to  me.  You 
have  your  hand  in  so  many  purses,  that  the  most  covetous 
would  by  this  have  had  their  fill  of  gold ;  you  are  far  too  cun- 
ning to  plunge  unadvisedly  into  criminal  courses,  but  you 
ought  not  either  to  rush  like  feather-brains  into  this  kitchen ; 
you  must  have  some  secret  schemes,  you  who  are  not  content 
with  gold  or  with  power?  Whom  do  you  serve,  God  or  the 
Devil?  What  are  you  concocting  here?  I  insist  on  the 
whole  truth.  I  am  honest  man  enough  to  hear  and  keep 
the  secret  of  your  undertakings,  however  blamable  they  may 
be.  So  tell  me  everything  without  concealment.  If  you  de- 
ceive me,  you  will  be  sternly  dealt  with.  But  Pagan  or  Chris- 
tian, Calvinist  or  Mohammedan,  you  have  my  Eoyal  word 
for  it  that  you  may  leave  the  country  unpunished,  even  if  you 
have  some  peccadilloes  to  confess.  At  any  rate,  I  give  you 
the  remainder  of  this  night  and  to-morrow  morning  to  ex- 
amine your  consciences,  for  you  are  my  prisoners,  and  you 
must  now  follow  me  to  a  place  where  you  will  be  guarded  like 
a  treasure.' 

"Before  yielding  to  my  authority,  the  two  Florentines 
glanced  at  each  other  with  a  wily  eye,  and  Lorenzo  Euggieri 
replied  that  I  might  be  certain  that  no  torture  would  wring 
their  secrets  from  them;  that  in  spite  of  their  frail  appear- 
ance, neither  pain  nor  human  feeling  had  any  hold  on  them. 
Confidence  alone  could  win  from  their  lips  what  their  mind 
had  in  its  keeping.     I  was  not  to  be  surprised  if  at  that  mo- 


286  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

ment  they  treated  on  an  equal  footing  with  a  King  who  ac- 
knowledged no  one  above  him  but  God,  for  that  their  ideas 
also  came  from  God  alone.  Hence  they  demanded  of  me 
such  confidence  as  they  would  grant.  So,  before  pledging 
themselves  to  answer  my  questions  without  reserve,  they  de- 
sired me  to  place  my  left  hand  in  the  young  girl's  and  my 
right  hand  in  the  old  woman's.  Not  ehoosing  to  let  them 
suppose  that  I  feared  any  devilry,  I  put  out  my  hands. 
Lorenzo  took  the  right  and  Cosmo  the  left,  and  each  placed 
one  in  the  hand  of  a  woman,  so  there  I  was  like  Jesus  Christ 
between  the  two  thieves.  All  the  time  the  two  witches  were 
studying  my  hands,  Cosmo  held  a  mirror  before  me,  desiring 
me  to  look  at  myself,  while  his  brother  talked  to  the  two  wo- 
men in  an  unknown  tongue.  Neither  Tavannes  nor  I  could 
catch  the  meaning  of  a  single  sentence. 

'^e  set  seals  on  every  entrance  to  this  laboratory  before 
bringing  away  the  men,  and  Tavannes  undertook  to  keep 
guard  till  Bernard  Palissy  and  Chapelain,  my  physician-in- 
chief,  shall  go  there  to  make  a  close  examination  of  all  the 
drugs  stored  or  made  there.  It  was  to  hinder  their  knowing 
anything  of  the  search  going  on  in  their  kitchen,  and  to  pre- 
vent their  communicating  with  any  one  whatever  outside — 
for  they  might  have  sent  some  message  to  my  mother — that 
I  brought  these  two  demons  to  be  shut  up  here  with  Solern's 
Germans  to  watch  them,  who  are  as  good  as  the  stoutest 
prison-walls.  Rene  himself  is  confined  to  his  room  under  the 
eye  of  Solern's  groom,  and  the  two  witches  also.  And  now, 
sweetheart,  as  I  hold  the  key  of  the  Cabala,  the  kings  of 
Thunes,  the  chiefs  of  witchcraft,  the  princes  of  Bohemia,  the 
masters  of  the  future,  the  inheritors  of  all  the  famous  sooth- 
sayers, I  will  read  and  know  your  heart,  and  at  last  we  will 
know  what  is  to  become  of  us." 

"I  shall  be  very  glad  if  you  can  lay  my  heart  bare,"  said 
Marie  without  showing  the  least  alarm. 

"I  know  why  necromancers  do  not  frighten  you;  you  cast 
spells  yourself." 

''Will  you  not  have  some  of  these  peaches  ?"  said  she,  offer- 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  287 

ing  him  some  fine  fruit  on  a  silver-gilt  plate.  "Look  at  these 
grapes  and  pears;  I  went  myself  to  gather  them  all  at  Vin- 
cennes." 

"Then  I  will  eat  some,  for  there  can  be  no  poison  in  them 
but  the  philters  distilled  from  your  fingers." 

"You  ought  to  eat  much  fruit,  Charles ;  it  would  cool  your 
blood,  which  you  scorch  by  such  violent  living." 

"And  ought  I  not  to  love  you  less  too  ?" 

"Perhaps "  said  she.    "If  what  you  love  is  bad  for  you, 

— and  I  have  thought  so — I  should  find  power  in  my  love  to 
refuse  to  let  you  have  it.  I  adore  Charles  far  more  than  I 
love  the  King,  and  I  want  the  man  to  live  without  the  trou- 
bles that  make  him  sad  and  anxious." 

"Koyalty  is  destroying  me." 

"It  is  so,"  replied  she.  "If  you  were  only  a  poor  prince 
like  your  brother-in-law  the  King  of  Navarre,  that  wretched 
debauchee  who  has  not  a  sou  or  a  stitch  of  his  own,  who  has 
merely  a  poor  little  kingdom  in  Spain  where  he  will  never 
set  foot,  and  Beam  in  France,  which  yields  him  scarcely 
enough  to  live  on,  I  should  be  happy,  much  happier  than  if 
I  were  really  Queen  of  France." 

"But  are  you  not  much  more  than  the  Queen?  King 
Charles  is  hers  only  for  the  benefit  of  the  kingdom,  for  the 
Queen,  after  all,  is  part  of  our  politics." 

Marie  smiled  with  a  pretty  little  pout,  saying: 

"We  all  know  that,  my  liege. — And  my  sonnet — is  it  fin- 
ished?" 

"Dear  child,  it  is  as  hard  to  write  verses  as  to  draw  up  an 
edict  of  pacification.  I  will  finish  them  for  you  soon.  Ah 
God !  life  sits  lightly  on  me  here,  would  I  could  never  leave 
you ! — But  I  must,  nevertheless,  examine  the  two  Florentines. 
By  all  the  sacred  relics,  I  thought  one  Euggieri  quite  enough 
in  France,  and  behold  there  are  two!  Listen,  my  dearest 
heart,  you  have  a  good  mother-wit,  you  would  make  a  capital 
lieutenant  of  police,  for  you  detect  everything " 

*^ell.  Sire,  we  women  take  all  we  dread  for  granted,  and 
to  us  what  is  probable  is  certain;  there  is  all  our  subtlety  in 
two  words." 


288  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

''Well,  then,  help  me  to  fathom  these  two  men.  At  this 
moment  every  determination  I  may  come  to  depends  on  this 
examination.  Are  they  innocent  ?  Are  they  guilty  ? — ^Behind 
them  stands  my  mother." 

"I  hear  Jacob  on  the  winding  stair,"  said  Marie. 

Jacob  was  the  King's  favorite  body  servant,  who  accom- 
panied him  in  all  his  amusements;  he  now  came  to  ask 
whether  his  Master  would  wish  to  speak  to  the  two  prisoners. 

At  a  nod  of  consent,  the  mistress  of  the  house  gave  some 
orders. 

"Jacob,"  said  she,  "make  every  one  in  the  place  leave  the 
house,  excepting  the  nurse  and  Monsieur  le  Dauphin 
d'Auvergne — they  may  stay.  Do  you  remain  in  the  room 
downstairs;  but  first  of  all  shut  the  windows,  draw  the  cur- 
tains, and  light  the  candles." 

The  King's  impatience  was  so  great  that,  while  these  prepa- 
rations were  being  made,  he  came  to  take  his  place  in  a  large 
settle,  and  his  pretty  mistress  seated  herself  by  his  side  in  the 
nook  of  a  wide,  white  marble  chimney-place,  where  a  bright 
fire  blazed  on  the  hearth.  In  the  place  of  a  mirror  hung  a  por- 
trait of  the  King,  in  a  red  velvet  frame.  Charles  rested  his 
elbow  on  the  arm  of  the  seat,  to  contemplate  the  two  Italians 
at  his  ease. 

The  shutters  shut,  and  the  curtains  drawn,  Jacob  lighted 
the  candles  in  a  sort  of  candelabrum  of  chased  silver,  placing 
it  on  a  table  at  which  the  two  Florentines  took  their  stand — 
seeming  to  recognize  the  candlestick  as  the  work  of  their 
fellow-townsman,  Benvenuto  Cellini.  Then  the  effect  of  this 
rich  room,  decorated  in  the  King's  taste,  was  really  brilliant. 
The  russet  tone  of  the  tapestries  looked  better  than  by  day- 
light. The  furniture,  elegantly  carved,  reflected  the  light  of 
the  candles  and  of  the  fire  in  its  shining  bosses.  The  gilding, 
judiciously  introduced,  sparkled  here  and  there  like  eyes,  and 
gave  relief  to  the  brown  coloring  that  predominated  in  this 
nest  for  lovers. 

Jacob  knocked  twice,  and  at  a  word  brought  in  the  two 
Florentines.    Marie  Touchet  was  immediately  struck  by  the 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE*  MEDICI  289 

grand  presence  which  distinguished  Lorenzo  in  the  sight  of 
great  and  small  alike.  This  austere  and  venerable  man, 
whose  silver  beard  was  relieved  against  an  overcoat  of  black 
velvet,  had  a  forehead  like  a  marble  dome.  His  severe  counte- 
nance, with  two  black  eyes  that  darted  points  of  fire,  inspired 
a  thrill  as  of  a  genius  emerged  from  the  deepest  solitude,  and 
all  the  more  impressive  because  its  power  was  not  dulled  by 
contact  with  other  men.  It  was  as  the  steel  of  a  blade  that 
,has  not  yet  been  used. 

Cosmo  Euggieri  wore  the  Court  dress  of  the  period.  Marie 
nodded  to  the  King,  to  show  him  that  he  had  not  exaggerated 
the  picture,  and  to  thank  him  for  introducing  her  to  this  ex- 
traordinary man. 

"I  should  have  liked  to  see  the  witches  too,"  she  whispered. 

Charles  IX.,  sunk  again  in  brooding,  made  no  reply ;  he  was 
anxiously  flipping  off  some  crumbs  of  bread  that  happened 
to  lie  on  his  doublet  and  hose. 

"Your  science  cannot  work  on  the  sky,  nor  compel  the  sun 
to  shine.  Messieurs  de  Florence,"  said  the  King,  pointing 
to  the  curtains  which  had  been  drawn  to  shut  out  the  gray 
mist  of  Paris.    "There  is  no  daylight." 

"Our  science,  Sire,  enables  us  to  make  a  sky  as  we  will," 
said  Lorenzo  Euggieri.  "The  weather  is  always  fair  for  those 
who  work  in  a  laboratory  by  the  light  of  a  furnace." 

"That  is  true,"  said  the  King.— "Well,  father,"  said  he, 
using  a  word  he  was  accustomed  to  employ  to  old  men, 
"explain  to  us  very  clearly  the  object  of  your  studies." 

"Who  will  guarantee  us  impunity?" 

"The  word  of  a  King!"  replied  Charles,  whose  curiosity 
was  greatly  excited  by  this  question. 

Lorenzo  Euggieri  seemed  to  hesitate,  and  Charles  ex- 
claimed : 

"What  checks  you  ?  we  are  alone." 

"Is  the  King  of  France  here  ?"  asked  the  old  man. 

Charles  IX.  reflected  for  a  moment,  then  he  replied,  "No." 

"But  will  he  not  come  ?"  Lorenzo  urged. 

"No,"  replied  Charles,  restraining  an  impulse  of  rage. 


290  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

The  imposing  old  man  took  a  chair  and  sat  down.  Cosmo, 
amazed  at  his  boldness,  dared  not  imitate  his  brother. 

Charles  IX.  said,  with  severe  irony : 

"The  King  is  not  here,  monsieur,  but  you  are  in  the  pres- 
ence of  a  lady  whose  permission  you  ought  to  wait  for." 

"The  man  you  see  before  you,  madame,"  said  the  grand 
old  man,  "is  as  far  above  kings  as  kings  are  above  their  sub- 
jects, and  you  shall  find  me  courteous,  even  when  you  know 
my  power."' 

Hearing  these  bold  words,  spoken  with  Italian  emphasis, 
Charles  and  Marie  looked  at  each  other  and  then  at  Cosmo, 
who,  with  his  eyes  fixed  on  his  brother,  seemed  to  be  asking 
himself,  "How  will  he  get  himself  out  of  the  awkward  posi- 
tion we  are  in  ?" 

In  fact,  one  person  only  could  appreciate  the  dignity  and 
skill  of  Lorenzo  Ruggieri's  first  move ;  not  the  King,  nor  his 
young  mistress,  over  whom  the  elder  man  had  cast  the  spell 
of  his  audacity,  but  his  not  less  wily  brother  Cosmo.  Though 
he  was  superior  to  the  cleverest  men  at  Court,  and  perhaps 
to  his  patroness  Catherine  de'  Medici,  the  astrologer  knew 
Lorenzo  to  be  his  master. 

The  learned  old  man,  buried  in  solitude,  had  gauged  the 
sovereigns  of  the  earth,  almost  all  of  them  wearied  out  by 
the  perpetual  shifting  of  politics:  for  at  that  time  great 
crises  were  so  sudden,  so  far  reaching,  so  fierce,  and  so  imex- 
pected!  He  knew  their  satiety,  their  lassitude;  he  knew 
with  what  eagerness  they  pursued  all  that  was  new,  strange, 
or  uncommon;  and,  above  all,  how  glad  they  were  to  rise 
now  and  then  to  intellectual  regions  so  as  to  escape  from  the 
perpetual  struggle  with  men  and  things.  To  those  who  have 
exhausted  politics,  nothing  remains  but  abstract  thought; 
this  Charles  V.  had  proved  by  his  abdication. 

Charles  IX.,  who  made  sonnets  and  swords  to  recreate 
himself  after  the  absorbing  business  of  an  age  when  the 
Throne  was  in  not  less  ill-odor  than  the  King,  and  when 
Royalty  had  only  its  cares  and  none  of  its  pleasures,  could 
not  but  be  strangely  startled  by  Lorenzo's  audacious  negation 


ir-*. 


t^-'\e~-^ 


JL 


•  ABOCT  CATHRUrim  Mr  miDfoi 

Ti  ug  old  man  '  t  down.  Coaatt, 

'.  boldnc^-.   '  ^Totlior 

,    said,  w ; 

ill  thfc  pr»'T^ 
ut  for.'* 
"live  mail  'W'  «aid  tlie  gotr 


he  u 
to  ii. 


Lorenzo  Ruggieri 


■  ui^iunl  all  that   ■■> 
0  all,  how  glad  tii 
^'ctual  regions  so  as  U< 
■  -n  and  thing?.     '  . 
-3:  reraain.s  !> 
liiit*  !i  by  his 

himself    . 

Throne  v.m    i;   j-<  i 

H-n'alty  bad  ov.'x  it*  ■ 

%i-pi  but  be  strungtly  stariied  it} 


-ly^rvEMzc  •Kuc-c-isrv*'^ 


•u^ 


ABOtJT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  291 

of  his  power.  Eeligious  impiety  had  ceased  to  be  surprising 
at  a  time  when  Catholicism  was  closely  inquired  into ;  but  the 
subversion  of  all  religion,  assumed  as  a  groundwork  for  the 
wild  speculations  of  mystical  arts,  naturally  amazed  the 
King,  and  roused  him  from  his  gloomy  absence  of  mind. 
Besides,  a  victory  to  be  won  over  mankind  was  an  undertaking 
which  would  make  every  other  interest  seem  trivial  in  the 
eyes  of  the  Euggieri.  An  important  debt  to  be  paid  depended 
on  this  idea  to  be  suggested  to  the  King;  the  brothers  could 
not  ask  for  this,  and  yet  they  must  obtain  it.  The  first  thing 
was  to  make  Charles  IX.  forget  his  suspicions  by  making 
him  jump  at  some  new  idea. 

The  two  Italians  knew  full  well  that  in  this  strange  game 
their* lives  were  at  stake;  and  the  glances — deferent  but 
proud — that  they  exchanged  with  Marie  and  the  King,  whose 
looks  were  keen  and  suspicious,  were  a  drama  in  themselves. 

"Sire,"  said  Lorenzo  Euggieri,  "you  have  asked  for  the 
truth.  But  to  show  her  to  you  naked,  I  must  bid  you  sound 
the  well,  the  pit,  from  which  she  will  rise.  I  pray  you  let 
the  gentleman,  the  poet,  forgive  us  for  saying  what  the 
Eldest  Son  of  the  Church  may  regard  as  blasphemy — I  do 
not  believe  that  God  troubles  himself  about  human  affairs." 

Though  fully  resolved  to  preserve  his  sovereign  indiffer- 
ence, Charles  IX.  could  not  control  a  gesture  of  surprise. 

"But  for  that  conviction,  I  should  have  no  faith  in  the 
miraculous  work  to  which  I  have  devoted  myself.  But,  to 
carry  it  out,  I  must  believe  it ;  and  if  the  hand  of  God  rules 
all  things,  I  am  a  madman.  So,  be  it  known  to  the  King, 
we  aim  at  winning  a  victory  over  the  immediate  course  of 
human  nature. 

"I  am  an  alchemist.  Sire;  but  do  not  suppose,  with  the 
vulgar,  that  I  am  striving  to  make  gold.  The  composition 
of  gold  is  not  the  end,  but  only  an  incident  of  our  researches ; 
else  we  should  not  call  our  undertaking  Magnum  Opus,  the 
great  work.  The  Great  Work  is  something  far  more  am- 
bitious than  that.  If  I,  at  this  day,  could  recognize  the 
presence  of  God  in  matter,  the  fire  of  the  furnaces  that  have 


292  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

been  burning  for  centuries  would  be  extinguished  to-morrow 
at  my  bidding. 

"But  make  no  mistake — to  deny  the  direct  interference 
of  God  is  not  to  deny  God.  We  place  the  Creator  of  all 
things  far  above  the  level  to  which  .eligions  reduce  Him. 
Those  who  hope  for  immortality  are  not  to  be  accused  of 
Atheism.  Following  the  example  of  Lucifer,  we  are  jealous 
of  God,  and  jealousy  is  a  proof  of  violent  love.  Though  this 
[doctrine  lies  at  the  root  of  our  labors,  all  adepts  do  not  ac- 
cept it.  Cosmo,"  said  the  old  man,  indicating  his  brother, 
"Cosmo  is  devout;  he  pays  for  masses  for  the  repose  of  our 
father's  soul,  and  he  goes  to  hear  them.  Your  mother's 
astrologer  believes  in  the  Divinity  of  Christ,  in  the  Immacu- 
late Conception,  and  in  Transubstantiation ;  he  believes  in 
the  Pope's  indulgences,  and  in  hell — he  believes  in  an 
infinite  number  of  things. — His  hour  is  not  yet  come,  for  I 
have  read  his  horoscope ;  he  will  live  to  be  nearly  a  hundred. 
He  will  live  through  two  reigns,  and  see  two  Kings  of  France 
assassinated " 

*^ho  wiU  be ?"  asked  the  King. 

"The  last  of  the  Valois  and  the  first  of  the  Bourbons,"  re- 
plied Lorenzo.  "But  Cosmo  will  come  to  my  way  of  think- 
ing. In  fact,  it  is  impossible  to  be  an  alchemist  and  a 
Catholic ;  to  believe  in  the  dominion  of  man  over  matter,  and 
in.  the  supreme  power  of  mind." 

"Cosmo  will  live  to  be  a  hundred  ?"  said  the  King,  knitting 
his  brows  in  the  terrible  way  that  was  his  wont. 

"Yes,  Sire,"  said  Lorenzo  decisively.  "He  will  die  peace- 
fully in  his  bed." 

"If  it  is  in  your  power  to  predict  the  moment  of  your 
death,  how  can  you  be  ignorant  of  the  result  of  your  in- 
quiries?" asked  the  King.  And  he  smiled  triumphantly  aa 
he  looked  at  Marie  Touchet. 

The  brothers  exchanged  a  swift  look  of  satisfaction 

"He  is  interested  in  alchemy,"  thought  th^,  "so  we  are 
safe." 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'   MEDICI  283 

"Our  prognostics  are  based  on  the  existing  relations  of  man 
to  nature ;  but  the  very  point  we  aim  at  is  the  complete  altera- 
tion of  those  relations,"  replied  Lorenzo. 

The  King  sat  thinking. 

*'But  if  you  are  sure  that  you  must  die,  you  are  assured 
of  defeat,"  said  Charles  IX. 

"As  our  predecessors  were/'  replied  Lorenzo,  lifting  his 
hand  and  letting  it  drop  with  a  solemn  and  emphatic  gesture, 
as  dignified  as  his  thoughts.  "But  your  mind  has  rushed 
on  to  the  goal  of  our  attempts,  Sire;  we  must  come  back 
again.  Sire !  Unless  you  know  the  ground  on  which  our 
edifice  is  erected,  you  may  persist  in  saying  that  it  will  fall, 
and  judge  this  science,  which  has  been  pursued  for  centuries 
by  the  greatest  minds,  as  the  vulgar  judge  it." 

The  King  bowed  assent. 

"I  believe,  then,  that  this  earth  belongs  to  man,  that  he 
is  master  of  it,  and  may  appropriate  all  the  forces,  all  the 
elements  thereof.  Man  is  not  a  creature  proceeding  directly 
from  the  hand  of  God,  but  the  result  of  the  principle  dif- 
fused throughout  the  infinite  Ether,  wherein  myriads  of  be- 
ings are  produced;  and  these  have  no  resemblance  to  each 
other  between  star  and  star,  because  the  conditions  of  life 
are  everywhere  different.  Ay,  my  Liege,  the  motion  we  call 
life  has  its  source  beyond  all  visible  worlds;  creation  draws 
from  it  as  the  surrounding  conditions  may  require,  and  the 
minutest  beings  share  in  it  by  taking  all  they  are  able,  at 
their  own  risk  and  peril;  it  is  their  part  to  defend  them- 
selves from  death.     This  is  the  sum  total  of  alchemy. 

"If  man,  the  most  perfect  animal  on  this  globe,  had  within 
him  a  fraction  of  the  Godhead,  he  could  not  perish — but  he 
does  perish.  To  escape  from  this  dilemma,  Socrates  and  his 
school  invented  the  soul.  I — the  successor  of  the  great  un- 
known kings  who  have  ruled  this  science — I  am  for  the  old 
Itheories  against  the  new;  I  believe  in  the  transmutation  of 
matter  which  I  can  see,  as  against  the  eternity  of  a  soul 
which  I  cannot  see.  I  do  not  acknowledge  the  world  of 
souls.     If  such  a  world  existed,  the  substances,  of  which  the 


294  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

beautiful  combination  produces  your  body — and  whicli  in 
madame  are  so  dazzling — would  not  separate  and  resolve 
themselves  after  your  death  to  return  each  to  its  own  place; 
the  water  to  water,  the  fire  to  fire,  the  metal  to  metal,  just 
as  when  my  charcoal  is  burnt  its  elements  are  restored  to 
their  original  molecules. 

"Though  you  say  that  something  lives  on,  it  is  not  we  our- 
selves ;  all  that  constitutes  our  living  self  perishes. 

"Now,  it  is  my  living  self  that  I  desire  to  perpetuate  be- 
yond the  common  term  of  life;  it  is  the  present  manifesta- 
tion for  which  I  want  to  secure  longer  duration.  What! 
trees  live  for  centuries,  and  men  shall  live  but  for  years, 
while  those  are  passive  and  we  are  active;  while  they  are 
motionless  and  speechless,  and  we  walk  and  talk !  No  crea- 
ture on  earth  ought  to  be  superior  to  us  either  in  power  or 
permanency.  We  have  already  expanded  our  senses;  we  can 
see  into  the  stars.  We  ought  to  be  able  to  extend  our  life. 
I  place  life  above  power.  Of  what  use  is  power  if  life  slips 
from  us  ? 

"A  rational  man  ought  to  have  no  occupation  but  that  of 
seeking — not  whether  there  is  another  life — but  the  secret 
on  which  our  present  life  is  based,  so  as  to  be  able  to  pro- 
long it  at  will ! — This  is  the  desire  that  has  silvered  my  hair. 
But  I  walk  on  boldly  in  the  darkness,  leading  to  battle 
those  intellects  which  share  my  faith.  Life  will  some  day 
be  ours." 

'^ut  how  ?"  cried  the  King,  starting  to  his  feet. 

"The  first  condition  of  our  faith  is  the  belief  that  this  world 
is  for  man;  you  must  grant  me  that,"  said  Lorenzo. 

"Well  and  good,  so  be  it!"  said  Charles  de  Valois,  impa- 
tient, but  already  fascinated. 

^'Well,  then.  Sire,  if  we  remove  God  from  this  world,  what/ 
is  left  but  man?  Now  let  us  survey  our  domain.  The  ma-] 
terial  world  is  composed  of  elements;  those  elements  have  a 
first  principle  within  them.  All  these  principles  resolve 
themselves  into  one  which  is  gifted  with  motion.  The  num- 
ber Three  is  the  formula  of  creation :  Matter,  Motion,  Produc- 
tion!" 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'   MEDICI  29S 

'Troof,  proof  ?     Pause  there  I"  cried  the  King. 

"Do  you  not  see  the  effects  ?"  replied  Lorenzo.  "We  have 
analyzed  in  our  crucibles  the  acorn  from  which  an  oak  would 
have  risen  as  well  as  the  embryo  which  would  have  become  a 
man;  from  these  small  masses  of  matter  a  pure  element  was 
derived  to  which  some  force,  some  motion  would  have  been 
added.  In  the  absence  of  a  Creator,  must  not  that  first  prin- 
ciple be  able  to  assume  the  external  forms  which  constitute 
our  world?  For  the  phenomena  of  life  are  everjrwhere  the 
same.  Yes,  in  metals  as  in  living  beings,  in  plants  as  in  man, 
life  begins  by  an  imperceptible  embryo  which  develops  spon- 
taneously. There  is  a  first  principle !  We  must  detect  it  at 
the  point  where  it  acts  on  itself,  where  it  is  one,  where  it  is 
a  Principle  before  it  is  a  Creature,  a  cause  before  it  is  an 
effect;  then  we  shall  see  it  Absolute — formless,  but  capable 
of  assuming  all  the  forms  we  see  it  take. 

"When  we  are  face  to  face  with  this  particle  or  atom,  and 
have  detected  its  motion  from  the  starting  point,  we  shall 
know  its  laws;  we  are  thenceforth  its  masters,  and  able  to 
impose  on  it  the  form  we  may  choose,  among  all  we  see;  we 
shall  possess  gold,  having  the  world,  and  can  give  ourselves 
centuries  of  life  to  enjoy  our  wealth.  That  is  what  we  seek, 
my  disciples  and  I.  All  our  powers,  all  our  thoughts  are 
directed  to  that  search;  nothing  diverts  us  from  it.  One 
hour  wasted  on  any  other  passion  would  be  stolen  from  onr 
greatness !  You  have  never  found  one  of  your  hunting-dogs 
neglectful  of  the  game  or  the  death,  and  I  have  never  known 
one  of  my  persevering  subjects  diverted  by  a  woman  or  a 
thought  of  greed. 

"If  the  adept  craves  for  gold  and  power,  that  hunger 
comes  of  our  necessities;  he  clutches  at  fortune  as  a  thirsty 
hound  snatches  a  moment  from  the  chase  to  drink,  because 
his  retorts  demand  a  diamond  to  consume,  or  ignots  to  be 
reduced  to  powder.  Each  one  has  his  line  of  work.  This  one 
seeks  the  secret  of  vegetable  nature,  he  studies  the  torpid  life 
of  plants,  he  notes  the  parity  of  motion  in  every  species  and 
the  parity  of  nutrition;  in  every  case  he  discerns  that  sun. 


296  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'   MEDICI 

air,  and  water  are  needed  for  fertility  and  nourishment.  An- 
other investigates  the  blood  of  animals.  A  third  studies 
the  laws  of  motion  generally  and  its  relation  to  the  orbits 
of  the  stars.  Almost  all  love  to  struggle  with  the  intractable 
nature  of  metals;  for  though  we  find  various  elements  in 
everything,  we  always  find  metals  the  same  throughout,  down 
to  their  minutest  particles. 

"Hence  the  common  error  as  to  our  labors.  Do  you  see 
all  these  patient  toilers,  these  indefatigable  athletes,  always 
vanquished,  and  always  returning  to  the  assault  ?  Humanity, 
Sire,  is  at  our  heels,  as  your  huntsman  is  at  the  heels  of 
the  pack.  It  cries  to  us,  *Hurry  on !  Overlook  nothing !  Sac- 
rifice everything,  even  a  man — you  who  sacrifice  yourselves ! 
Hurry  onward !  Cut  off  the  head  and  hands  of  Death,  my 
foe!' 

'Tes,  Sire,  we  are  animated  by  a  sentiment  on  which  the 
happiness  depends  of  generations  to  come.  We  have  buried 
many  men — and  what  men ! — who  have  died  in  the  pursuit. 
When  we  set  foot  on  that  road  it  is  not  to  work  for  ourselves : 
we  may  perish  without  discovering  the  secret.  And  what  a 
death  is  that  of  a  man  who  does  not  believe  in  a  future  life ! 
We  are  glorious  martyrs;  we  bear  the  selfishness  of  the  whole 
race  in  our  hearts;  we  live  in  our  successors.  On  our  way 
we  discover  secrets  which  enrich  the  mechanical  and  liberal 
arts.  Our  furnaces  shed  gleams  of  light  which  help  society 
to  possess  more  perfect  forms  of  industry.  Gunpowder  was 
discovered  in  our  retorts;  we  shall  conquer  the  thunder  yet. 
Our  patient  vigils  may  overthrow  politics." 

"Can  that  be  possible!"  cried  the  King,  sitting  up  again 
on  the  settle. 

"Why  not?"  replied  the  Grand  Master  of  the  New  Tem- 
plars. "Tradidit  mundum  disputationibus !  God  has  given  us 
the  world.  Listen  to  this  once  again !  Man  is  lord  on  earth 
and  matter  is  his.  Every  means,  every  power  is  at  his  ser- 
vice. What  created  us  ?  A  motion.  What  power  keeps  life 
in  us?  A  motion.  And  should  not  science  grasp  this  mo- 
tion?    Nothing  on  earth  is  lost,  nothing  flies  off  from  eur 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  20? 

planet  to  go  elsewhere;  if  it  were  so,  the  stars  would  fall  on 
one  another.  The  waters  of  the  Deluge  are  all  here,  and  not 
a  drop  lost.  Around  us,  above,  below,  are  the  elements  whence 
have  proceeded  the  innumerable  millions  of  men  who  have 
trodden  the  earth,  before  and  since  the  Deluge.  What  is  it 
that  remains  to  be  done  ?  To  detect  the  disintegrating  force ; 
on  the  other  hand,  to  discover  the  combining  force.  We  are 
the  outcome  of  a  visible  toil.  When  the  waters  covered  our 
globe,  men  came  forth  from  them  who  found  the  elements  of 
life  in  the  earth's  covering,  in  the  atmosphere,  and  in  food. 
Earth  and  air,  theo,  contain  the  first  principle  of  human 
transformations;  these  go  on  under  our  eyes,  by  the  agency 
of  what  is  under  our  eyes;  hence  we  can  discover  the  secret 
by  not  confining  our  efforts  to  the  span  of  one  man's  life, 
but  making  the  task  endure  as  long  as  mankind  itself.  We 
have,  in  fact,  attacked  matter  as  a  whole;  Matter,  in  which 
I  believe,  and  which  I,  Grand  Master  of  our  Order,  am  bent 
on  penetrating. 

"Christopher  Columbus  gave  a  world  to  the  King  of  Spain ; 
I  am  seeking  to  give  the  King  of  France  a  people  that  shall 
never  die. — I,  an  outpost  on  the  remotest  frontier  which  cuts 
U8  off  from  the  knowledge  of  things,  a  patient  student  of 
atoms,  I  destroy  forms,  I  dissolve  the  bonds  of  every  com- 
bination, I  imitate  Death  to  enable  me  to  imitate  Life.  In 
short,  I  knock  incessantly  at  the  door  of  Creation,  and  shall 
still  knock  till  my  latest  day.  When  I  die,  my  knocker  will 
pass  into  other  hands  not  less  indefatigable,  as  unknown 
giants  bequeathed  it  to  me. 

"Fabulous  images,  never  understood,  such  as  those  of  Pro- 
metheus, of  Ixion,  of  Adonis,  of  Pan,  etc.,  which  are  part 
of  the  religious  beliefs  of  every  people  and  in  every  age,  show 
us  that  this  hope  had  its  birth  with  the  human  race.  Chaldaea, 
India,  Persia,  Egypt,  Greece,  and  the  Moors  have  transmitted 
Magian  lore,  the  highest  of  all  the  occult  sciences,  the  store- 
house of  the  results  of  generations  of  watchers.  Therein  lay 
the  bond  of  the  noble  and  majestic  Order  of  the  Temple. 
When  he  burned  the  Templars,  a  predecessor  of  yours.  Sire, 


296  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDIOI 

only  burned  men;  their  secrets  remain  with  us.  The  recon- 
struction of  the  Temple  is  the  watchword  of  an  unrecognized 
people,  a  race  of  intrepid  seekers,  all  looking  to  the  Orient 
of  life,  all  brethren,  all  inseparable,  united  by  an  idea, 
stamped  with  the  seal  of  toil.  I  am  the  sovereign  of  this 
people,  their  chief  by  election  and  not  by  birth.  I  guide  them 
all  towards  the  essence  of  life !  Grand  Master,  Eosicrucians^ 
companions,  adepts,  we  all  pursue  the  invisible  molecule 
which  escapes  our  crucibles,  and  still  evades  our  sight;  but 
we  shall  make  ourselves  eyes  manifold  more  powerful  than 
those  bestowed  on  us  by  nature;  we  shall  get  to  the  primi- 
tive atom,  the  corpuscular  element  so  perseveringly  sought 
by  all  the  sages  who  have  preceded  us  in  the  sublime  pursuit. 

"Sire,  when  a  man  stands  astride  on  that  abyss,  and  has 
at  his  command  divers  so  intrepid  as  my  brethren,  other 
human  interests  look  very  small;  hence  we  are  not  danger- 
ous. Eeligious  disputes  and  political  struggles  are  far  from 
us;  we  are  immeasurably  beyond  them.  Those  who  contend 
with  nature  do  not  condescend  to  take  men  by  the  throat. 

"Moreover,  ev^ry  result  in  our  science  is  appreciable;  we 
can  measure  every  effect,  we  can  predict  it,  whereas  in  the 
combinations  which  include  men  and  their  interests  every- 
thing is  unstable.  We  shall  submit  the  diamond  to  our  cru- 
cible ;  we  shall  make  diamonds ;  we  shall  make  gold !  Like 
one  of  our  craft  at  Barcelona,  we  shall  make  ships  move  by 
the  help  of  a  little  water  and  fire.  We  shall  dispense  with 
the  wind,  nay,  we  shall  make  the  wind,  we  shall  make  light 
and  renew  the  face  of  empires  by  new  industries ! — But  we 
will  never  stoop  to  mount  a  throne  to  be  gehennaed  by  na- 
tions." 

Notwithstanding  his  desire  to  avoid  being  entrapped  by 
Florentine  cunning,  the  King,  as  well  as  his  simple-minded 
mistress,  was  by  this  time  caught  and  carried  away  in  the 
rhetoric  and  rhodomontade  of  this  pompous  and  specious  flow 
of  words.  The  lovers'  eyes  betrayed  how  much  they  were 
dazzled  by  the  vision  of  mysterious  riches  spread  out  before 
them ;  they  saw,  as  it  were,  subterranean  caverns  in  long  per- 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  2M 

epective  full  of  toiling  gnomes.  The  impatience  of  curiosity 
dissipated  the  alarms  of  suspicion, 

"But,  then/'  exclaimed  the  King,  "you  are  great  politicians, 
and  can  enlighten  us." 

"No,  Sire,"  said  Lorenzo  simply. 

"Why  not?"  asked  the  King. 

"Sire,  it  is  given  to  no  one  to  be  able  to  predict  what  ■will 
come  of  a  concourse  of  some  thousands  of  men;  we  may  be 
able  to  tell  what  one  man  will  do,  how  long  he  will  live,  and 
whether  he  will  be  lucky  or  unlucky ;  but  we  cannot  tell  how 
several  wills  thrown  together  will  act,  and  any  calculation  of 
the  swing  of  their  interests  is  even  more  difficult,  for  inter- 
ests are  men  plus  things ;  only  in  solitude  can  we  discern  the 
general  aspect  of  the  future.  The  Protestantism  that  is  de- 
vouring you  will  be  devoured  in  its  turn  by  its  practical  out- 
come, which,  in  its  day,  will  become  a  theory  too.  Europe, 
so  far,  has  not  gone  further  than  religion;  to-morrow  it  will 
attack  Koyalty." 

"Then  the  night  of  Saint-Bartholomew  was  a  great  con- 
ception ?" 

"Yes,  Sire;  for  when  the  people  triumph,  they  will  have 
their  Saint-Bartholomew.  When  Eeligion  and  Eoyalty  are 
swept  away,  the  people  will  attack  the  great,  and  after  the 
great  they  will  fall  upon  the  rich.  Finally,  when  Europe  is 
no  more  than  a  dismembered  herd  of  men  for  lack  of  leaders, 
it  will  be  swallowed  up  by  vulgar  conquerors.  The  world 
has  presented  a  similar  spectacle  twenty  times  before,  and  Eu- 
rope is  beginning  again.  Ideas  devour  the  ages  as  men  are 
devoured  by  their  passions.  When  man  is  cured,  human 
nature  will  cure  itself  perhaps.  Science  is  the  soul  of  man- 
kind, and  we  are  its  pontiffs;  and  those  who  study  the  soul 
care  but  little  for  the  body." 

"How  far  have  you  gone  ?"  asked  the  King. 

"We  move  but  slowly ;  but  we  never  lose  what  we  have  once 
conquered." 

"So  yon,  in  fact,  are  the  King  of  the  Wizards,"  said 
Charles  IX.,  piqued  at  finding  himself  so  small  a  personage 
in  the  presence  of  this  man. 


300  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

The  imposing  Grand  Master  of  Adepts  flashed  a  look  at 
him  that  left  him  thunder-stricken. 

"You  are  the  King  of  men,"  replied  he;  "I  am  the  King 
of  Ideas.  Besides,  if  there  were  real  wizards,  you  could  not 
have  burned  them !"  he  added,  with  a  touch  of  irony.  '*We 
too  have  our  martyrs." 

"But  by  what  means,"  the  King  went  on,  "do  you  cast 
nativities  ?  How  did  you  know  that  the  man  near  your  win- 
dow last  night  was  the  King  of  France  ?  What  power  enabled 
one  of  your  race  to  foretell  to  my  mother  the  fate  of  her  three 
sons?  Can  you,  the  Grand  Master  of  the  Order  that  would 
fain  knead  the  world, — can  you,  I  say,  tell  me  what  the  Queen 
my  mother  is  thinking  at  this  moment?" 

"Yes,  Sire." 

The  answer  was  spoken  before  Cosmo  could  pull  his 
brother's  coat  to  warn  him. 

"You  know  why  my  brother,  the  King  of  Poland,  is  re- 
turning home?" 

"Yes,  Sire." 

"And  why?" 

"To  take  your  place." 

"Our  bitterest  enemies  are  our  own  kith  and  kin,"  cried 
the  King,  starting  up  in  a  fury,  and  striding  up  and  down 
the  room.  "Kings  have  no  brothers,  no  sons,  no  mother! 
Coligny  was  right;  my  executioners  are  in  the  conventicles, 
they  are  at  the  Louvre.  You  are  either  impostors  or  regicides ! 
— Jacob,  call  in  Solern." 

"Mj  Lord,"  said  Marie  Touchet,  "the  Euggieri  have  your 
■word  of  honor.  You  have  chosen  to  eat  of  the  fruit  of  the 
tree  of  knowledge;  do  not  complain  of  its  bitterness." 

The  King  smiled  with  an  expression  of  deep  contempt ;  his 
material  sovereignty  seemed  small  in  his  eyes  in  comparison 
with  the  supreme  intellectual  sovereignty  of  old  Lorenzo  Eug- 
gieri. Charles  IX.  could  scarcely  govern  France;  the  Grand 
Master  of  the  Eosicrucians  commanded  an  intelligent  and 
submissive  people. 

"Be  frank;  I  give  you  my  word  as  a  gentleman  that  yonr 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDIOI  -301 

reply,  even  if  it  should  contain  the  avowal  of  the  worst  crimes, 
shall  be  as  though  it  had  never  been  spoken,"  the  Eling  said. 
"Do  you  study  poisons  ?" 

"To  know  what  will  secure  life,  it  is  needful  to  know  what 
will  cause  death/' 

"You  have  the  secret  of  many  poisons  ?" 

"Yes,  but  in  theory  only,  and  not  in  practice;  we  know 
them,  but  do  not  use  them." 
I     "Has  my  mother  asked  for  any  ?" 

"The  Queen-mother,  Sire,  is  far  too  clever  to  have  recourse 
to  such  means.  She  knows  that  the  sovereign  who  uses  poi- 
son shall  perish  by  poison;  the  Borgias,  and  Bianca,  Grand 
Duchess  of  Tuscany,  are  celebrated  examples  of  the  da^igers 
incurred  by  those  who  use  such  odious  means.  At  Court 
everything  is  known.  You  can  kill  a  poor  wretch  outright; 
of  what  use,  then,  is  it  to  poison  him?  But  if  you  attempt 
the  life  of  conspicuous  persons,  what  chance  is  there  of  se- 
crecy? Nobody  could  have  fired  at  Coligny  but  you,  or  the 
Queen-mother,  or  one  of  the  Guises.  No  one  made  any  mis- 
take about  that.  Take  my  word  for  it,  in  politics  poison  can- 
not be  used  twice  with  impunity;  princes  always  have  suc- 
cessors. 

"As  to  smaller  men,  if,  like  Luther,  they  becoine  sovereigns 
by  the  power  of  ideas,  by  killing  them  you  do  not  kill  their 
doctrine. — The  Queen  is  a  Florentine;  she  knows  that  poi- 
son can  only  be  the  instrument  of  private  vengeance.  My 
brother,  who  has  never  left  her  since  she  came  to  France, 
knows  how  deeply  Madame  Diane  aggrieved  her;  she  never 
thought  of  poisoning  her,  and  she  could  have  done  so.  What 
would  the  King  your  father  have  said?  No  woman  would 
have  been  more  thoroughly  justified,  or  more  certain  of  im- 
punity.   But  Madame  de  Valentinois  is  alive  to  this  day." 

"And  the  magic  of  wax  images  ?"  asked  the  King. 

"Sire,"  said  Cosmo,  "these  figures  are  se  entirely  innocuous 
that  we  lend  ourselves  to  such  magic  to  satisfy  blind  pas- 
sions, like  physicians  who  give  bread  pills  to  persons  who 
fancy  themselves  sick.     A  desperate  woman  imagines  that 


302  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

by  stabbing  the  heart  of  an  image  she  brings  disaster  on  the 
faithless  lover  it  represents.  What  can  we  say?  These  are 
our  taxes." 

"The  Pope  sells  indulgences,"  said  Lorenzo  Euggieri,  smil- 
ing. 

"Does  my  mother  make  use  of  such  images  ?" 

"Of  what  use  would  such  futile  means  be  to  her  who  can 
do  what  she  will  ?" 

"Could  Queen  Catherine  save  you  at  this  moment  ?"  asked 
Charles  ominously. 

"We  are  in  no  danger.  Sire,"  said  Lorenzo  calmly.  "I 
knew  before  I  entered  this  house  that  I  should  leave  it  safe 
and  sound,  as  surely  as  I  know  the  ill-feeling  that  the  King 
will  bear  my  brother  a  few  days  hence ;  but,  even  if  he  should 
run  some  risk,  he  will  triumph.  Though  the  King  reigns  by 
the  sword,  he  also  reigns  by  justice,"  he  added,  in  allusion  to 
the  famous  motto  on  a  medal  struck  for  Charles  IX. 

'Tou  know  everything;  I  shall  die  before  long,  and  that 
is  well,"  returned  the  King,  hiding  his  wrath  under  feverish 
impatience.  "But  how  will  my  brother  die,  who,  according 
to  you,  is  to  be  Henri  III.  ?" 

"A  violent  death." 

"And  Monsieur  d'Alengon?" 

"He  will  never  reign." 

"Then  Henri  de  Bourbon  will  be  King?** 

'Tes,  Sire." 

"And  what  death  will  he  die?" 

"A  violent  death." 

"And  when  I  am  dead,  what  will  become  of  madame?" 
asked  the  King,  turning  to  Marie  Touchet. 

"Madame  de  Belleville  will  marry.  Sire." 

"You  are  impostors ! — Send  them  away,  my  Lord,"  saidi 
Marie  Touchet. 

"Dear  heart,  the  Euggieri  have  my  word  as  a  gentleman," 
said  Charles,  smiling.    "Will  Marie  have  children  ?" 

'Tes — and  madame  will  live  to  be  more  than  eighty." 

"Must  I  have  them  hanged?"  said  the  King  to  his  mis- 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  303 

tress. — "And  my  son,  the  Comte  d'Auvergne  ?"  said  Charles, 
rising  to  fetch  the  child. 

"Why  did  you  tell  him  that  I  should  marry?"  said  Marie 
Touehet  to  the  two  brothers  during  the  few  moments  when 
they  were  alone. 

"Madame/'  replied  Lorenzo  with  dignity,  "the  King  re- 
quired us  to  tell  the  truth,  and  we  told  it." 

"Then  it  is  true  ?"  said  she. 

"As  true  as  that  the  Governor  of  Orleans  loves  you  to  dis- 
traction." 

"But  I  do  not  love  him,"  cried  she. 

"That  is  true,  madame,"  said  Lorenzo.  "But  your  horo- 
scope shows  that  you  are  to  marry  the  man  who  at  this  pres- 
ent loves  you." 

"Could  you  not  tell  a  little  lie  for  my  sake  ?"  said  she  with 
a  smile.    "For  if  the  King  should  believe  your  forecast '* 

"Is  it  not  necessary  that  he  should  believe  in  our  inno- 
cence?" said  Cosmo,  with  a  glance  full  of  meaning.  "The 
precautions  taken  by  the  King  against  us  have  given  us  rea- 
son, during  the  time  we  spent  in  your  pretty  jail,  to  suppose 
that  the  occult  sciences  must  have  been  maligned  in  his  ears." 

"Be  quite  easy,"  replied  Marie;  "I  know  him,  and  his 
doubts  are  dispelled." 

*^e  are  innocent,"  said  the  old  man  haughtily. 

"So  much  the  better;  for  at  this  moment  the  King  is  hav- 
ing your  laboratory  searched  and  your  crucibles  and  phials 
examined  by  experts." 

The  brothers  looked  at  each  other  and  smiled. 

Marie  took  this  smile  for  the  irony  of  innocence;  but  it 
mehnt :  "Poor  simpletons  !  Do  you  suppose  that  if  we  know 
how  to  prepare  poisons,  we  do  not  also  know  how  to  conceal 
them?" 

"Where  are  the  King's  people,  then  ?"  asked  Cosmo. 

"In  Rene's  house,"  replied  Marie;  and  the  Euggieri  ex- 
changed a  glance  which  conveyed  from  each  to  each  the  same 
thought,  "The  Hotel  de  Soissons  is  inviolable !" 

The  King  had  so  completely  thrown  off  his  suspicions,  that 


304  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

when  he  went  to  fetch  his  son,  and  Jacob  intercepted  him  to 
give  him  a  note  written  by  Chapelain,  he  opened  it  in  the  cer- 
tainty of  finding  in  it  what  his  physician  told  him  concern- 
ing his  visit  to  the  laboratory,  where  all  that  had  been  dis- 
covered bore  solely  on  alchemy. 

^'Will  he  live  happy  ?"  asked  the  King,  showing  his  infant 
son  to  the  two  alchemists. 

"This  is  Cosmo's  concern/'  said  Lorenzo,  turning  to  hia 
jbrother. 

Cosmo  took  the  child's  little  hand  and  studied  it  carefully. 

"Monsieur,"  said  Charles  IX.  to  the  elder  man,  "if  you 
are  compelled  to  deny  the  existence  of  the  spirit  to  believe 
that  your  enterprise  is  possible,  tell  me  how  it  is  that  you 
can  doubt  that  which  constitutes  your  power.  The  mind 
you  desire  to  annihilate  is  the  torch  that  illumines  your 
search.  Ah,  ha !  Is  not  that  moving  while  denying  the  fact 
of  motion  ?"  cried  he,  and  pleased  at  having  hit  on  this  argu- 
ment, he  looked  triumphantly  at  his  mistress. 

"Mind,"  said  Lorenzo  Euggieri,  "is  the  exercise  of  an  in- 
ternal sense,  just  as  the  faculty  of  seeing  various  objects  and 
appreciating  their  form  and  color  is  the  exercise  of  our  sight. 
That  has  nothing  to  do  with  what  is  assumed  as  to  another 
life.  Mind — ^thought — is  a  faculty  which  may  cease  even  dur- 
ing life  with  the  forces  that  produce  it." 

'TTou  are  logical,"  said  the  King  with  surprise.  "But 
alchemy  is  an  atheistical  science." 

"Materialist,  Sire,  which  is  quite  a  different  thing.  Ma- 
terialism is  the  outcome  of  the  Indian  doctrines  transmitted 
through  the  mysteries  of  Isis  to  Chaldsea  and  Egypt,  and 
brought  back  to  Greece  by  Pythagoras,  one  of  the  demi-gods 
among  men;  his  doctrine  of  transmigration  is  the  mathe- 
matics of  materialism,  the  living  law  of  its  phases.  Each 
of  the  different  creations  which  make  up  the  earthly  creation 
possesses  the  power  of  retarding  the  impulse  that  drags  it  into 
another  form." 

"Then  alchemy  is  the  science  of  sciences !"  cried  Charles 
IX.,  fired  with  enthusiasm.    "I  must  see  you  at  work." 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  305 

"As  often  as  you  will.  Sire.  You  cannot  be  more  eager 
than  the  Queen  your  mother." 

"Ah!  That  is  why  she  is  so  much  attached  to  you!" 
cried  the  King. 

"The  House  of  Medici  has  secretly  encouraged  our  re- 
search for  almost  a  century  past." 

"Sire/'  said  Cosmo,  "this  child  will  live  nearly  a  hundred 
years;  he  will  meet  with  some  checks,  but  will  be  happy  and 
honored,  having  in  his  veins  the  blood  of  the  Valois." 

"I  will  go  to  see  you,"  said  the  King,  who  had  recovered 
his  good  humor.    "You  can  go." 

The  brothers  bowed  to  Marie  and  Charles  IX.  and  with- 
drew. They  solemnly  descended  the  stairs,  neither  looking 
at  each  other  nor  speaking;  they  did  not  even  turn  to  look 
up  at  the  windows  from  the  courtyard,  so  sure  were  they  that 
the  King's  eye  was  on  them;  and,  in  fact,  as  they  turned  to 
pass  through  the  gate,  they  saw  Charles  IX.  at  a  window. 

As  soon  as  the  alchemist  and  the  astrologer  were  in  the 
Rue  de  I'Autruche,  they  cast  a  look  in  front  and  behind  to 
see  that  no  one  was  either  following  them  or  waiting  for 
them,  and  went  on  as  far  as  the  Louvre  moat  without  speak- 
ing a  word;  but  there,  finding  that  they  were  alone,  Lorenzo 
said  to  Cosmo  in  the  Florentine  Italian  of  the  time: 

"Ajfe  d'Iddio!  como  le  abbiamo  infinoccJiiato !"  (By  God, 
we  have  caught  them  finely!) 

"Oran  merces!  a  lui  sta  di  spartojarsi" — (Much  good  may 
it  do  him;  he  must  make  what  he  can  of  it) — said  Cosmo. 
"May  the  Queen  do  as  much  for  me !  We  have  done  a  good 
stroke  for  her." 

Some  days  after  this  scene,  which  had  struck  Marie 
Touchet  no  less  than  the  King,  in  one  of  those  moments  when 
in  the  fulness  of  joy  the  mind  is  in  some  sort  released  from 
the  body,  Marie  exclaimed : 

"Charles,  I  understand  Lorenzo  Euggieri;  but  Cosmo  said 
nothing." 

"That  is  true,"  said  the  King,  startled  by  this  sudden  flash 


306  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

of  light,  "and  there  was  as  much  falsehood  as  truth  in  what 
they  said.  Those  Italians  are  as  slippery  as  the  silk  they 
spin," 

This  suspicion  explains  the  hatred  of  Cosmo  that  the  King 
betrayed  on  the  occasion  of  the  trial  on  the  conspiracy  of 
la  Mole  and  Coconnas.  When  he  found  that  Cosmo  was 
one  of  the  contrivers  of  that  plot,  the  King  believed  himself 
duped  by  the  two  Italians;  for  it  proved  to  him  that  his 
mother's  astrologer  did  not  devote  himself  exclusively  to 
studying  the  stars,  fulminating  powder  and  final  atoms.  Lo- 
renzo had  then  left  the  country. 

In  spite  of  many  persons'  incredulity  of  such  things,  the 
events  which  followed  this  scene  confirmed  the  prophecies 
uttered  by  the  Ruggieri. 

The  King  died  three  months  later.  The  Comte  de  Gondi 
followed  Charles  IX.  to  the  tomb,  as  he  had  been  told  that 
he  would  by  his  brother,  the  Marechal  de  Eetz,  a  friend  of 
the  Euggieri,  and  a  believer  in  their  foresight. 

Marie  Touchet  married  Charles  de  Balzac,  Marquis  d'En- 
tragues.  Governor  of  Orleans,  by  whom  she  had  two  daugh- 
ters. The  more  famous  of  these  two,  the  Comte  d'Auvergne's 
half-sister,  was  Henri  IV.'s  mistress,  and  at  the  time  of 
Biron's  conspiracy  tried  to  place  her  brother  on  the  throne 
of  France  and  oust  the  Bourbons. 

The  Comte  d'Auvergne,  made  Due  d'Angouleme,  lived  till 
the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  He  coined  money  in  his  province, 
altering  the  superscription;  but  Louis  XIV.  did  not  inter- 
fere, so  great  was  his  respect  for  the  blood  of  the  Valois. 

Cosmo  lived  till  after  the  accession  of  Louis  XIIL;  he 
saw  the  fall  of  the  House  of  Medici  in  France,  and  the  over- 
throw of  the  Concini.  History  has  taken  care  to  record  that 
he  died  an  atheist — that  is  to  say,  a  materialist. 
I  The  Marquise  d'Entragues  was  more  than  eighty  when  she 
died. 

Lorenzo  and  Cosmo  had  for  their  disciple  the  famous 
Comte  de  Saint-Germain,  who  became  notorious  under 
Louis  XV.    The  great  alchemist  was  not  less  than  a  hundred 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  SJOt 

and  thirty  years  old,  the  age  to  which  some  biographers  say 
Marion  Delorme  attained.  The  Count  may  have  heard  from 
the  Ruggieri  anecdotes  of  the  Massacre  of  Saint-Bartholomew 
and  of  the  reigns  of  the  Valois,  in  which  they  could  at  pleas- 
ure assume  a  part  by  speaking  in  the  first  person.  The  Comte 
de  Saint-Germain  is  the  last  professor  of  alchemy  who  ex- 
plained the  science  well,  but  he  left  no  writings.  The  doc- 
Itrine  of  the  Cabala  set  forth  in  this  volume  was  derived  from 
that  mysterious  personage. 

It  is  a  strange  thing!  Three  men's  lives,  that  of  the  old 
man  from  whom  this  information  was  obtained,  that  of  the 
Comte  de  Saint-Germain,  and  that  of  Cosmo  Ruggieri,  em- 
brace European  history  from  the  reign  of  Francis  I.  to  that 
of  Napoleon.  Only  fifty  lives  of  equal  length  would  cover  the 
time  to  as  far  back  as  the  first  known  epoch  of  the  world. — • 
'^hat  are  fifty  generations  for  studying  the  mysteries  of 
life  ?"  the  Comte  de  Saint-Germain  used  to  say. 

Pabis,  November-December  1886. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  T>E'  IMEDIOI 


PART  III 

THE  TWO  DREAMS 

In  1786  Bodard  de  Saint- James,  treasurer  to  the  Navy,  w&s 
of  all  the  financiers  of  Paris  the  one  whose  luxury  gave  rise 
to  most  remark  and  gossip.  At  that  time  he  was  building 
his  famous  Folly  at  Neuilly,  and  his  wife  bought,  to  crown 
the  tester  of  her  bed,  a  plume  of  feathers  of  which  the  price 
had  dismayed  the  Queen.  It  was  far  easier  then  than  now 
to  make  oneself  the  fashion  and  be  talked  of  by  all  Paris; 
a  witticism  was  often  quite  enough,  or  the  caprice  of  a 
woman. 

Bodard  lived  in  the  fine  house  in  the  Place  Vendome  which 
the  farmer-general  Dange  had  not  long  since  been  compelled 
to  quit.  This  notorious  Epicurean  was  lately  dead;  and  on 
the  day  when  he  was  buried,  Monsieur  de  Bievre,  his  intimate 
friend,  had  found  matter  for  a  jest,  saying  that  now  one  could 
cross  the  Place  Vendome  without  danger  (or  Dang6).  This 
allusion  to  the  terrific  gambling  that  went  on  in  the  de- 
ceased man's  house  was  his  funeral  oration.  The  house  is 
that  opposite  to  the  Chancellerie. 

To  complete  Bodard's  history  as  briefly  as  possible,  he  was 
a  poor  creature,  he  failed  for  fourteen  millions  of  francs 
after  the  Prince  de  Guemenee.  His  clumsiness  in  not  antici-' 
pating  that  Serene  bankruptcy — to  use  an  expression  of 
Lebrun-Pindare's — ^led  to  his  never  even  being  mentioned.! 
He  died  in  a  garret,  like  Bourvalais,  Bouret,  and  many  others. 

Madame  de  Saint-James  indulged  an  ambition  of  never 
receiving  any  but  people  of  quality — a  stale  absurdity  that 
is  ever  new.  To  her  the  cap  of  a  lawyer  in  the  Parlement 
was  but  a  small  affair;  she  wanted  to  see  her  rooms  filled  with 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  309 

persons  of  title  who  had  at  least  the  minor  privileges  of 
entree  at  Versailles.  To  say  that  many  blue  ribbons  were  to 
be  seen  in  the  lady's  house  would  be  untrue;  but  it  is  quite 
certain  that  she  had  succeeded  in  winning  the  civility  and 
attention  of  some  members  of  the  Eohan  family,  as  was 
proved  subsequently  in  the  too  famous  case  of  the  Queen's 
necklace. 

One  evening — it  was,  I  believe,  in  August  1786 — I  was 
greatly  surprised  to  see  in  this  millionaire's  room,  precise  as 
she  was  in  the  matter  of  proofs  of  rank,  two  new  faces,  which 
struck  me  as  being  of  decidedly  inferior  birth. 

She  came  up  to  me  as  I  stood  in  a  window  recess,  where 
I  had  intentionally  ensconced  myself. 

"Do  tell  me,"  said  I,  with  a  questioning  glance  at  one  of 
these  strangers,  "who  is  that  specimen?  How  did  he  get 
into  your  house  ?" 

"He  is  a  charming  man." 

"Do  you  see  him  through  the  prism  of  love,  or  am  I  mis- 
taken in  him?" 

"You  are  not  mistaken,"  she  replied,  laughing;  "he  is  as 
ugly  as  a  toad;  but  he  has  done  me  the  greatest  service  a 
woman  can  accept  from  a  man." 

As  I  looked  at  her  with  mischievous  meaning,  she  hastened 
to  add:  "He  has  entirely  cured  me  of  the  ugly  red  patches 
which  spoiled  my  complexion  and  made  me  look  like  a  peas- 
ant woman." 

I  shrugged  my  shoulders  with  disgust. 

"A  quack !"  I  exclaimed. 

"No,"  said  she,  "he  is  a  physician  to  the  Court  pages.  He 
is  clever  and  amusing,  I  assure  you ;  and  he  has  written  books 
too.    He  is  a  very  learned  physicist." 

"If  his  literary  style  is  like  his  face ! "  said  I,  smiling. 

"And  the  other?" 

*^What  other?" 

"That  little  prim  man,  as  neat  as  a  doll,  and  who  looks  as 
if  he  drank  verjuice." 

"He  is  a  man  of  good  family,"  said  she.     "He  has  come 


310  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

from  some  province — I  forget  which. — Ah !  yes,  from  Artois, 
He  is  in  Paris  to  wind  up  some  affair  that  concerns  the  Car- 
dinal, and  His  Eminence  has  just  introduced  him  to  Monsieur 
de  Saint-James.  They  have  agreed  in  choosing  Monsieur  de 
Saint-James  to  be  arbitrator.  In  that  the  gentleman  from 
the  provinces  has  not  shown  much  wisdom.  What  are  peo- 
ple thinking  of  when  they  place  a  case  in  that  man's  hands  ? 
He  is  as  gentle  as  a  lamb,  and  as  shy  as  a  girl.  His  Emi- 
nence is  most  kind  to  him.'' 

'^hat  is  it  about  ?"  said  I. 

"Three  hundred  thousand  livres,"  said  she. 

**What !  a  lawyer  ?"  I  asked,  with  a  little  start  of  astonish- 
ment. 

'Tes/'  replied  she. 

And,  somewhat  disturbed  by  having  to  make  this  humiliat- 
ing confession,  Madame  Bodard  returned  to  her  game  of  f aro- 

Every  table  was  made  up.  I  had  nothing  to  do  or  to 
say.  I  had  just  lost  two  thousand  crowns  to  Monsieur  de 
LavaJ,  whom  I  had  met  in  a  courtesan's  drawing-room.  I 
went  to  take  a  seat  in  a  deep  chair  near  the  fire.  If  ever  on 
this  earth  there  was  an  astonished  man,  it  certainly  was  I 
on  discovering  that  my  opposite  neighbor  was  the  Controller- 
General.  Monsieur  de  Calonne  seemed  to  be  drowsy,  or  else 
he  was  absorbed  in  one  of  those  brown  studies  which  come 
over  a  statesman.  When  I  pointed  out  the  Minister  to  Bean- 
marchais,  who  came  to  speak  to  me,  the  creator  of  Figaro 
explained  the  mystery  without  speaking  a  word.  He  pointed 
first  to  my  head  and  then  to  Bodard's  in  an  ingeniously  sig- 
nificant way,  by  directing  his  thumb  to  one  and  his  little 
finger  to  the  other,  with  the  rest  of  the  fingers  closed.  My 
first  impulse  was  to  go  and  say  something  sharp  to  Calonne, 
but  I  sat  still;  in  the  first  place,  because  I  intended  to  play 
the  favorite  a  trick,  and  also  because  Beaumarchais  had  some- 
what familiarly  seized  my  hand. 

"What  is  it,  monsieoir?"  said  I. 

With  a  wink  he  indicated  the  Minister. 

'T)o  not  wake  him,"  he  said  in  a  low  tone;  "we  may  be 
only  too  thankful  when  he  sleeps." 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  311 

"But  even  sleeping  is  a  scheme  of  finance,"  said  I. 

"Certainly  it  is,"  replied  the  statesman,  who  had  read  our 
words  by  the  mere  motion  of  our  lips.  "And  would  to  God 
we  could  sleep  a  long  time;  there  would  not  be  such  an 
awakening  as  you  will  see !" 

"Monseigneur,"  said  the  play-writer,  "I  owe  you  some 
thanks." 

"What  for?" 

"Monsieur  de  Mirabeau  is  gone  to  Berlin.  I  do  not  know 
whether  in  this  matter  of  the  Waters  we  may  not  both  be 
drowned." 

"You  have  too  much  memory  and  too  little  gratitude," 
replied  the  Minister  drily,  vexed  at  this  betrayal  of  one  of  his 
secrets  before  me. 

"Yery  possibly,"  said  Beaumarchais,  greatly  nettled.  "But 
I  have  certain  millions  which  may  square  many  accounts." 
Calonne  affected  not  to  have  heard. 

It  was  half-past  twelve  before  the  card-tables  broke  up. 
Then  we  sat  down  to  supper — ^ten  of  us :  Bodard  and  his  wife, 
the  Controller-General,  Beaumarchais,  the  two  strangers,  two 
pretty  women  whose  names  may  not  be  mentioned,  and  a 
farmer-general  named,  I  think,  Lavoisier.  Of  thirty  persons 
whom  I  had  found  on  entering  the  drawing-room  but  these 
ten  remained.  And  the  two  "specimens"  would  only  stay  to 
supper  on  the  pressing  invitation  of  the  lady  of  the  house, 
who  thought  she  could  discharge  her  debt  to  one  by  giving 
him  a  meal,  and  asked  the  other  perhaps  to  please  her  hus- 
band, to  whom  she  was  doing  the  civil — wherefore  I  know 
not.  Monsieur  de  Calonne  was  a  power,  and  if  any  one  had 
cause  to  be  annoyed  it  would  have  been  I. 

The  supper  was  at  first  deadly  dull.  The  two  men  and 
the  farmer-general  weighed  on  us.  I  signed  to  Beaumar- 
chais to  make  the  son  of  Esculapius,  by  whom  he  was  sitting, 
drink  till  he  was  tipsy,  giving  him  to  understand  that  I  would 
deal  with  the  lawyer.  As  this  was  the  only  kind  of  amuse- 
ment open  to  us,  and  as  it  gave  promise  of  some  blundering 
impertinence  on  the  part  of  the  two  strangers,  which  amused 


312  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

US  by  anticipation,  Monsieur  de  Calonne  smiled  on  the 
scheme.  In  two  seconds  the  ladies  had  entered  into  our 
Bacchic  plot.  By  significant  glances  they  expressed  their 
readiness  to  play  their  part,  and  the  wine  of  Sillery  crowned 
our  glasses  again  and  again  with  silvery  foam.  The  surgeon 
was  easy  enough  to  deal  with;  but  as  I  was  about  to  pour  out 
my  neighbor's  second  glass,  he  told  me  with  the  cold  polite- 
ness of  a  money-lender  that  he  would  drink  no  more. 

At  this  time,  by  what  chance  I  know  not,  Madame  de  Saint- 
James  had  turned  the  conversation  on  the  wonderful  suppers 
to  the  Comte  de  Cagliostro,  given  by  the  Cardinal  de  Rohan. 
My  attention  was  not  too  keenly  alive  to  what  the  mistress  of 
the  house  was  saying ;  for  since  her  reply  I  had  watched,  with 
invincible  curiosity,  my  neighbor's  pinched,  thin  face,  of 
which  the  principal  feature  was  a  nose  at  once  wide  and  sharp, 
which  made  him  at  times  look  very  like  a  ferret.  Suddenly 
his  cheeks  flushed  as  he  heard  Madame  de  Saint-James  dis- 
puting with  Monsieur  de  Calonne. 

"But  I  assure  you,  monsieur,"  said  she  in  a  positive  tone, 
"that  I  have  seen  Queen  Cleopatra." 

"I  believe  it,  madame,"  said  my  neighbor.  "I  have  spoken 
to  Catherine  de'  Medici." 

"Oh !  oh !"  said  Monsieur  de  Calonne. 

The  words  spoken  by  the  little  provincial  had  an  inde- 
scribably sonorous  tone — to  use  a  word  borrowed  from 
physical  science.  This  sudden  clearness  of  enunciation,  from 
a  man  who  till  now  had  spoken  very  little  and  very  low,  in 
the  best  possible  taste,  surprised  us  in  the  highest  degree. 

"Why,  he  is  talking !"  exclaimed  the  surgeon,  whom  Beau- 
marchais  had  worked  up  to  a  satisfactory  condition. 

"His  neighbor  must  have  touched  a  spring,"  replied  the 
satirist. 

Our  man  colored  a  little  as  he  heard  these  words,  though 
they  were  spoken  in  a  murmur. 

"And  what  was  the  late  lamented  Queen  like?"  asked 
Calonne. 

"I  will  not  assert  that  the  person  with  whom  I  supped  last 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  S13 

night  was  Catherine  de'  Medici  herself;  such  a  miracle  must 
seem  as  impossible  to  a  Christian  as  to  a  philosopher/'  re- 
plied the  lawyer,  resting  his  finger-tips  lightly  on  the  table, 
and  leaning  back  in  his  chair  as  if  preparing  to  speak  at  some 
length.  "But,  at  any  rate,  I  can  swear  that  that  woman  was 
as  like  to  Catherine  de'  Medici  as  though  they  had  been  sis- 
ters. The  lady  I  saw  wore  a  black  velvet  dress,  absolutely 
like  that  which  the  Queen  is  wearing  in  the  portrait  belong- 
ing to  the  King;  on  her  head  was  the  characteristic  black  vel- 
vet cap;  her  complexion  was  colorless,  and  her  face  the  face 
you  know.  I  could  not  help  expressing  my  surprise  to  His 
Eminence.  The  suddenness  of  the  apparition  was  all  the 
more  wonderful  because  Monsieur  le  Comte  de  Cagliostro 
could  not  guess  the  name  of  the  personage  in  whose  company 
I  wished  to  be.  I  was  utterly  amazed.  The  magical  spec- 
tacle of  a  supper  where  such  illustrious  women  of  the  past 
were  the  guests  robbed  me  of  my  presence  of  mind.  When,  at 
about  midnight,  I  got  away  from  this  scene  of  witchcraft, 
I  almost  doubted  my  own  identity. 

"But  all  these  marvels  seemed  quite  natural  by  comparison 
with  the  strange  hallucination  under  which  I  was  presently 
to  fall.  I  know  not  what  words  I  can  use  to  describe  the  con- 
dition of  my  senses.  But  I  can  declare,  in  all  sincerity  of 
heart,  that  I  no  longer  wonder  that  there  should  have  been, 
of  old,  spirits  weak  enough — or  strong  enough — to  believe  in 
the  mysteries  of  magic  and  the  power  of  the  Devil.  For  my 
part,  till  I  have  ampler  information,  I  regard  the  apparitions 
of  which  Cardan  and  certain  other  thaumaturgists  have 
spoken  as  quite  possible." 

These  words,  pronounced  with  incredible  eloquence  of  tone, 
were  of  a  nature  to  rouse  extreme  curiosity  in  those  present. 
Our  looks  all  centered  on  the  orator,  and  we  sat  motionless. 
Our  eyes  alone  showed  life  as  they  reflected  the  bright  wax 
lights  in  the  candlesticks.  By  dint  of  watching  the  stranger, 
we  fancied  we  could  see  an  emanation  from  the  pores  of  his 
face,  and  especially  from  those  of  his  brow,  of  the  inner  feel- 
ings that  wholly  possessed  him.     This  man,  apparently  so 


814  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

cold  and  strictly  reserved,  seemed  to  have  within  him  a  hidden 
fire,  of  which  the  flame  came  forth  to  us. 

"I  know  not,"  he  went  on,  "whether  the  figure  I  had  seen 
called  up  made  itself  invisible  to  follow  me;  but  as  soon 
as  I  had  laid  my  head  on  my  pillow,  I  saw  the  grand  shade 
of  Catherine  rise  before  me.  I  instinctively  felt  myself  in 
a  luminous  sphere;  for  my  eyes,  attracted  to  the  Queen  with 
painful  fixity,  saw  her  alone.  Suddenly  she  bent  over 
me " 

At  these  words  the  ladies  with  one  consent  betrayed  keener 
curiosity. 

"But,"  said  the  lawyer,  '1  do  not  know  whether  I  ought 
to  go  on;  although  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  it  was  but  a 
dream,  what  remains  to  be  told  is  serious." 

"Does  it  bear  on  religion?"  asked  Beaumarchais. 

"Or  is  it  in  any  way  indecent?"  asked  Calonne.  "These 
ladies  will  forgive  it." 

"It  bears  on  government,"  replied  the  lawyer. 

"Go  on,"  said  the  Minister.  'Voltaire,  Diderot,  and  their 
like  have  done  much  to  educate  our  ears." 

The  Controller-General  was  all  attention,  and  his  neighbor, 
Madame  de  Genlis,  became  absorbed.  The  stranger  still  hesi- 
tated.   Then  Beaumarchais  exclaimed  impetuously : 

"Come,  proceed,  Maitre !  Do  not  you  know  that  when  the 
laws  leave  folks  so  little  liberty,  people  revenge  themselves  by 
laxity  of  manners?" 

So  the  lawyer  went  on : 

"Whether  it  was  that  certain  ideas  were  fermenting  in  my 
soul,  or  that  I  was  prompted  by  some  unknown  power,  I  said 
to  her: 

"  *Ah,  madame,  you  committed  a  very  great  crime.* 

"  'Which  ?'  she  asked  in  a  deep  voice. 

"  'That  for  which  the  signal  was  given  by  the  Palace  clock 
on  the  24th  of  August.' 

"She  smiled  scornfully,  and  some  deep  furrows  showed  on 
her  pallid  cheeks. 

"  'Do  ^u  call  that  a  crime  ?'  replied  she ;  'it  was  only  an 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  SIS 

accident.  The  undertaking  was  badly  managed,  and  the  good 
result  we  looked  for  failed — for  France,  for  all  Europe,  and 
for  the  Catholic  Church.  How  could  we  help  it  ?  Our  orders 
were  badly  carried  out.  We  could  not  find  so  many  Montlucs 
as  we  needed.  Posterity  will  not  give  us  credit  for  the  defec- 
tive communications  which  hindered  us  from  giving  our  work 
the  unity  of  impulse  which  is  necessary  to  any  great  Coup 
d'^taf;  that  was  our  misfortune.  If  by  the  25th  of  August 
not  the  shadow  of  a  Huguenot  had  been  left  in  France,  I 
should  have  been  regarded  to  the  remotest  posterity  as  a 
noble  incarnation  of  Providence.  How  often  have  the  clear- 
seeing  spirits  of  Sixtus  V.,  of  Eichelieu,  of  Bossuet,  secretly 
accused  me  of  having  failed  in  my  undertaking,  after  daring 
to  conceive  of  it !     And  how  many  regrets  attended  my  death ! 

"  'The  disease  was  still  rife  thirty  years  after  that  Saint- 
Bartholomew's  night;  and  it  had  caused  the  shedding  of  ten 
times  more  noble  blood  in  France  than  was  left  to  be  shed 
on  August  26,  1572.  The  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes, 
for  which  you  had  medals  struck,  cost  more  tears,  more  blood 
and  money,  and  killed  more  prosperity  in  France  than  three 
Saint-Bartholomews.  Letellier,  with  a  dip  of  ink,  carried 
into  effect  the  decree  which  the  Crown  had  secretly  desired 
since  my  day;  but  though  on  August  25,  1572,  this  tremen- 
dous execution  was  necessary,  on  August  25,  1685,  it  was 
useless.  Under  Henri  de  Valois'  second  son  heresy  was 
scarcely  pregnant;  under  Henri  de  Bourbon's  second  son 
the  teeming  mother  had  cast  her  spawn  over  the  whole  world. 

"  'You  accuse  me  of  crime,  and  you  raise  statues  to  the  son 
of  Anne  of  Austria!  But  he  and  I  aimed  at  the  same  end. 
He  succeeded ;  I  failed ;  but  Louis  XIV.  found  the  Protestants 
disarmed,  while  in  my  day  they  had  powerful  armies,  states- 
men, captains,  and  Germany  to  back  them.' 

"On  hearing  these  words  slowly  spoken,  I  felt  within  me  a 
tremulous  thrill.  I  seemed  to  scent  the  blood  of  I  know 
not  what  victims.  Catherine  had  grown  before  me.  She 
stood  there  like  an  evil  genius,  and  I  felt  as  if  she  wanted 
to  get  into  my  conscience  to  find  rest  there " 


316  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

*He  must  have  dreamed  that,"  said  Beaumarchais,  in  a 
low  voice,    "He  certainly  never  invented  it." 

"  'My  reason  is  confounded/  said  I  to  the  Queen.  TTou 
pride  yourself  on  an  action  which  three  generations  have 
condemned  and  held  accursed,  and ' 

"  *Add/  said  she,  'that  writers  have  heen  more  unjust  to  me 
than  my  contemporaries  were.  N'o  one  undertakes  my  de- 
fence. I  am  accused  of  ambition — I  who  was  so  rich  and 
a  Queen.  I  am  taxed  with  cruelty — I  who  have  but  two  de- 
capitations on  my  conscience.  And  to  the  most  impartial 
minds  I  am  still,  no  doubt,  a  great  riddle.  Do  you  really 
believe  that  I  was  governed  by  feelings  of  hatred,  that  I 
breathed  only  vengeance  and  fury?'  She  smiled  scornfully. 
*I  was  as  calm  and  cold  as  Keason  itself.  I  condemned  the 
Huguenots  without  pity,  but  without  anger;  they  were  the 
rotten  orange  in  my  basket.  If  I  had  been  Queen  of  England, 
I  should  have  judged  the  Catholics  in  the  same  way,  if  they 
had  been  seditious.  To  give  our  power  any  vitality  at  that 
period,  only  one  God  could  be  allowed  in  the  State,  only 
one  faith  and  one  master.  Happily  for  me,  I  left  my  excuse 
recorded  in  one  sentence.  When  Birague  brought  me  a  false 
report  of  the  loss  of  the  battle  of  Dreux — "Well  and  good," 
said  I,  "then  we  will  go  to  Sermon." — Hate  the  leaders  of 
the  New  Religion?  I  esteemed  them  highly,  and  I  did  not 
know  them.  If  I  ever  felt  an  aversion  for  any  political  person- 
age, it  was  for  that  cowardly  Cardinal  de  Lorraine,  and  for 
his  brother,  a  wily  and  brutal  soldier,  who  had  me  watched 
by  their  spies.  They  were  my  children's  enemies ;  they  wanted 
to  snatch  the  crown  from  them;  I  saw  them  every  day,  and 
they  were  more  than  I  could  bear.  If  we  had  not  carried  out 
the  plan  for  Saint-Bartholomew's  Day,  the  Guises  would 
have  done  it  with  the  help  of  Eome  and  its  monks.  The 
Ligue,  which  had  no  power  till  I  had  grown  old,  would  have 
begun  in  1573.' 

"  'But,  madame,'  said  I,  'instead  of  commanding  that  hor- 
rible butchery — excuse  my  frankness — why  did  you  not  em- 
ploy the  vast  resources  of  your  political  genius  in  giving  the 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  817 

Eeformers  the  wise  institutions  which  made  Henri  IV.'s  reign 
so  glorious  and  peaceful  ?' 

"She  smiled  again,  shrugging  her  shoulders,  and  her  hollow 
wrinkles  gave  her  pale  features  an  ironical  expression  full  of 
bitterness. 

"  *After  a  furious  struggle  a  nation  needs  repose,'  said  she. 
*That  is  the  secret  of  that  reign.  But  Henri  IV.  committed 
two  irremediable  blunders.  He  ought  neither  to  have  abjured 
Protestantism  nor  to  have  left  France  Catholic  after  his  own 
conversion.  He  alone  has  ever  been  in  a  position  to  change 
the  face  of  France  without  a  shock.  Either  not  a  single  stole, 
or  not  a  single  conventicle !  That  is  what  he  ought  to  have 
seen.  To  leave  two  hostile  principles  at  work  in  a  govern- 
ment with  nothing  to  balance  them  is  a  crime  in  a  King;  it 
is  sowing  the  seed  of  revolutions.  It  belongs  to  God  alone 
to  leave  good  and  evil  for  ever  at  odds  in  the  work  of  His 
hand.  But  this  sentence  was  perhaps  inscribed  at  the  founda- 
tions of  Henri  IV.'s  policy,  and  perhaps  it  was  what  led  to 
his  death.  It  is  impossible  that  Sully  should  not  have  cast 
a  covetous  eye  on  the  immense  possessions  of  the  clergy — 
though  the  clergy  were  not  their  sole  masters,  for  the  nobles 
dissipated  at  least  two-thirds  of  the  Church  revenues.  Sully 
the  Keformer  owned  abbeys  nevertheless.'  She  paused,  to 
think,  as  it  seemed. 

"  'But  does  it  occur  to  you,'  said  she,  'that  you  are  asking  a 
Pope's  niece  her  reason  for  remaining  Catholic?' — Again 
she  paused — 'And,  after  all,  I  would  just  as  soon  have  been 
a  Calvinist,'  she  went  on,  with  a  gesture  of  indifference.  'Can 
the  superior  men  of  your  age  still  think  that  religion  had 
really  anything  to  do  with  that  great  trial,  the  most  tremen- 
dous of  those  that  Europe  has  been  required  to  decide — a 
vast  revolution  retarded  by  trivial  causes,  which  will  not  hin- 
der it  from  overflowing  the  whole  world,  since  I  failed  to  stop 
it. — A  revolution,'  said  she,  with  a  look  of  deep  meaning, 
'which  is  still  progressing,  and  which  you  may  achieve. — Yes, 
sVou,  who  hear  me !' 

"I  shuddered. 


318  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

"^hat!  Has  no  one  yet  understood  that  old  interests 
on  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  new  interests,  had  taken  Eome 
and  Luther  to  be  their  standards  of  battle !  What !  When 
Louis  IX.,  to  avoid  a  somewhat  kindred  struggle,  dragged 
after  him  a  population  a  hundred  times  greater  than  that 
I  condemned  to  death,  and  left  them  in  the  sands  of  Egypt, 
he  earned  the  title  of  Saint,  while  I ! — But  I,'  she  added, 
'failed.' 

"She  looked  down  and  stood  silent  for  a  minute.  It  was 
no  longer  a  Queen  that  I  beheld,  but  rather  one  of  those 
Druidesses  of  old  who  sacrificed  men,  and  could  unroll  the 
pages  of  the  future  while  exhuming  the  lore  of  the  past.  But 
she  presently  raised  her  royal  and  majestic  face. 

"  'By  directing  the  attention  of  the  middle  classes  to  the 
abuses  of  the  Eoman  Church,'  said  she,  'Luther  and  Calvin 
gave  birth  in  Europe  to  a  spirit  of  investigation  which  in- 
evitably led  the  nations  to  examine  everything.  Examination 
leads  to  doubt.  Instead  of  the  faith  indispensable  to  social 
existence,  they  brought  in  their  train,  and  long  after  them, 
an  inquisitive  philosophy,  armed  with  hammers,  and  greedy 
of  destruction.  Science,  with  its  false  lights,  sprang  glittering 
from  the  womb  of  heresy.  Eeform  in  the  Church  was  not  so 
much  what  was  aimed  at  as  the  indefinite  liberty  of  man, 
which  is  fatal  to  power.  I  have  seen  that.  The  result  of 
the  successes  of  the  Eeformers  in  their  contest  against  the 
priesthood — even  at  that  time  better  armed  and  more  for- 
midable than  the  Crown — was  the  destruction  of  the  mon- 
archical power  raised  with  so  much  difficulty  by  Louis  XI. 
on  the  ruins  of  feudality.  Their  aim  was  nothing  less  than 
the  annihilation  of  Eeligion  and  Eoyalty,  and  over  their 
wreck  the  middle  classes  of  all  lands  were  to  join  in  a  common 
compact.  Thus  this  contest  was  war  to  the  death  between 
these  new  allies  and  ancient  laws  and  beliefs.  The  Catholics 
were  the  representative  expression  of  the  'material  interests 
of  the  Crown,  the  Nobility,  and  the  Priesthood. 

"  'It  was  a  duel  to  the  death  between  two  giants ;  the  night 
of  Saint-Bartholomew   was,   unfortunately,   only   a  wound. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  31Q 

Eemember  that,  to  save  a  few  drops  of  blood  at  the  right  mo- 
ment, a  torrent  had  to  be  shed  at  a  later  day.  There  is  a  mis- 
fortune which  the  Intelligence  that  looks  down  on  a  kingdom 
cannot  avert;  that,  namely,  of  having  no  peers  by  whom  to 
be  Judged  when  he  succumbs  under  the  burden  of  events. 
My  peers  are  few;  fools  are  in  the  majority;  these  two  propo- 
sitions account  for  everything.  If  my  name  is  held  in  exe- 
cration in  France,  the  inferior  minds  which  constitute  the 
mass  of  every  generation  are  to  blame. 

"  'In  such  great  crises  as  I  have  been  through,  reigning 
does  not  mean  holding  audience,  reviewing  troops,  and  sign- 
ing decrees.  I  may  have  made  mistakes ;  I  was  but  a  woman. 
But  why  was  there  no  man  then  living  who  was  superior  to  the 
age?  The  Duke  of  Alva  had  a  soul  of  iron,  Philip  II.  was 
stultified  by  Catholic  dogmas,  Henri  IV.  was  a  gambler  and 
a  libertine,  the  Admiral  was  systematically  pig-headed. 
Louis  XI.  had  lived  too  soon;  Eichelieu  came  too  late. 
Whether  it  were  virtuous  or  criminal,  whether  the  Massacre 
of  Saint-Bartholomew  is  attributed  to  me  or  no,  I  accept  the 
burden.  I  shall  always  stand  between  those  two  great  men  as 
a  visible  link  in  an  unrecognized  chain.  Some  day  paradox- 
ical writers  will  wonder  whether  nations  have  not  sometimes 
given  the  name  of  executioner  to  those  who,  in  fact,  were 
victims.  Not  once  only  will  mankind  be  ready  to  immolate 
a  God  rather  than  accuse  itself !  You  are  all  ready  to  shed 
tears  for  two  hundred  louts,  when  you  refuse  them  for  the 
woes  of  a  generation,  of  a  century,  of  the  whole  world !  And 
you  also  forget  that  political  liberty,  the  peace  of  a  nation, 
and  science  itself  are  gifts  for  which  Fate  demands  a  heavy 
tax  in  blood !' 

"  'May  the  nations  never  be  happy  at  less  cost  ?'  cried  I, 
with  tears  in  my  eyes. 

"  'Great  Truths  leave  their  wells  only  to  find  fresh  vigor 
in  baths  of  blood.  Christianity  itself,  the  essence  of  all  truth, 
since  it  proceeds  from  God,  was  not  established  without  mar- 
tyrs. Has  not  blood  flowed  in  torrents?  Must  it  not  for 
ever  flow? — You  will  know — you  who  are  to  be  one  of  the 


820  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

builders  of  the  social  edifice  founded  by  the  apostles.  As 
long  as  you  use  your  instruments  to  level  heads,  you  will  be 
applauded;  then,  when  you  want  to  take  up  the  trowel,  you 
will  be  killed.' 

"  'Blood !  blood !' — the  words  rang  in  my  brain  like  the 
echo  of  a  bell. 

"  'According  to  you,'  said  I,  'Protestantism  has  the  same 
right  as  you  have  to  argue  thus  ?'  , 

"But  Catherine  had  vanished  as  though  some  draught  of 
£ur  had  extinguished  the  supernatural  light  which  enabled 
my  mind  to  see  the  figure  which  had  grown  to  gigantic  pro- 
portions. I  had  suddenly  discerned  in  myself  an  element 
which  assimilated  the  horrible  doctrines  set  forth  by  the 
Italian  Queen, 

"I  woke  in  a  sweat,  and  in  tears ;  and  at  the  inoment  when 
reason,  triumphing  within  me,  assured  me  in  her  mild  tones 
that  it  was  not  the  function  of  a  King,  nor  even  of  a  nation, 
to  practise  these  principles,  worthy  only  of  a  people  of 
atheists " 

"And  how  are  perishing  monarchies  to  be  saved?"  asked 
Beaumarchais. 

"God  is  above  all,  monsieur,"  replied  my  neighbor. 

"Well,  then,"  said  Monsieur  de  Calonne,  with  the  flippancy 
which  characterized  him,  "we  have  always  the  resource  of 
believing  ourselves  to  be  instruments  in  the  hand  of  God, 
as  the  gospel  according  to  Bossuet  has  it." 

As  soon  as  the  ladies  understood  that  the  whole  scene  was 
a  conversation  between  the  Queen  and  the  lawyer,  they  had 
begun  whispering.  Indeed,  I  have  spared  the  reader  the 
exclamations  and  interruptions  with  which  they  broke  into 
the  lawyer's  narrative.  However,  such  phrases  as,  "What  a 
deadly  bore!"  and  "My  dear,  when  will  he  have  done?" 
reached  my  ear. 

When  the  stranger  ceased  speaking,  the  ladies  were  silent. 
Monsieur  Bodard  was  asleep.  The  surgeon  being  half  drunk, 
Lavoisier,  Beaumarchais,  and  I  alone  had  been  listening; 
Monsieur  de  Calonne  was  playing  with  the  lady  at  his  side. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  321 

At  this  moment  the  silence  was  almost  solemn.  The  light 
of  the  tapers  seemed  to  me  to  have  a  magical  hue.  A  com- 
mon sentiment  linked  us  by  mysterious  bonds  to  this  man 
who,  to  me,  suggested  the  inexplicable  effects  of  fanaticism. 
It  needed  nothing  less  than  the  deep  hollow  voice  of  Beau- 
marchais*  neighbor  to  rouse  us. 

"I  too  dreamed !"  he  exclaimed. 

I  then  looked  more  particularly  at  the  surgeon,  and  felt 
an  indescribable  sentiment  of  horror.  His  earthy  complexion, 
his  features,  large  but  vulgar,  were  the  exact  expression  of 
what  I  must  be  allowed  to  call  la  canaille,  the  rough  mob. 
A  few  specks  of  dull  blue  and  black  dotted  his  skin  like  spots 
of  mud,  and  his  eyes  flashed  with  sinister  fires.  The  face 
looked  more  ominous  perhaps  than  it  really  was,  because 
a  powdered  wig  a  la  frimas  crowned  his  head  with  snow. 

"That  man  must  have  buried  more  than  one  patient/'  said 
I  to  my  neighbor. 

"I  would  not  trust  my  dog  to  his  care,"  he  replied. 

"I  hate  him  involuntarily,"  said  I. 

"I  despise  him,"  replied  he. 

"And  yet  how  unjust!"  cried  I. 

"Oh !  bless  me,  by  the  day  after  to-morrow  he  may  be  as 
famous  as  Volange  the  actor,"  replied  the  stranger. 

Monsieur  de  Calonne  pointed  to  the  surgeon  with  a  gesture 
that  seemed  to  convey,  "This  fellow  might  amuse  us." 

"And  did  you  too  dream  of  a  Queen  ?"  asked  Beaumarchais. 

"No,  I  dreamed  of  a  people,"  said  he  with  emphasis,  making 
us  laugh.  "I  was  attending  a  patient  whose  leg  I  was  to 
amputate  the  next  day " 

"And  you  found  a  people  in  your  patient's  thigh?"  asked 
Monsieur  de  Calonne. 

"Exactly  so !"  replied  the  surgeon. 

"Is  not  he  amusing  ?"  cried  Madame  de  Genlis. 

"I  was  greatly  surprised,"  the  speaker  went  on,  never  heed- 
ing these  interruptions,  and  stuffing  his  hands  into  his 
breeches  pockets,  "to  find  some  one  to  talk  to  in  that  leg.  I 
had  the  strange  power  of  entering  into  my  patient.     When 


322  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI 

I  first  found  myself  in  his  skin,  I  discerned  there  an  amazing 
number  of  tiny  beings,  moving,  thinking,  and  arguing.  Some 
lived  in  the  man's  body,  and  some  in  his  mind.  His  ideas 
were  creatures  that  were  born,  grew,  and  died;  they  were 
sick,  gay,  healthy,  sad — and  all  had  personal  individuality 
They  fought  or  fondled.  A  few  ideas  flew  forth  and  went  to 
dwell  in  the  world  of  intellect.  Suddenly  I  understood  that 
there  are  two  worlds — the  visible  and  the  invisible  universe; 
that  the  earth,  like  man,  has  a  body  and  a  soul.  A  new  light 
was  cast  on  nature,  and  I  perceived  its  immensity  when  I 
saw  the  ocean  of  beings  everywhere  distributed  in  masses  and 
in  species,  all  of  one  and  the  same  living  matter,  from  marble 
rocks  up  to  God.  A  magnificent  sight !  In  short,  there  was 
a  universe  in  my  patient.  When  I  inserted  my  lancet  in  his 
gangrened  leg,  I  destroyed  a  thousand  such  beings. — You 
laugh,  ladies,  at  the  idea  that  you  are  a  prey  to  a  thousand 
creatures " 

"No  personalities,"  said  Monsieur  de  Colonne,  "speak  for 
yourself  and  your  patient." 

"My  man,  horrified  at  the  outcry  of  his  animalcules,  wanted 
to  stop  the  operation;  but  I  persisted,  telling  him  that  ma- 
lignant creatures  were  already  gnawing  at  his  bones.  He 
made  a  motion  to  resist  me,  not  understanding  that  what  I 
was  doing  was  for  his  good,  and  my  lancet  pierced  me  in  the 
side " 

"He  is  too  stupid,"  said  Lavoisier. 

"N'o,  he  is  drunk,"  replied  Beaumarchais. 

"But,  gentlemen,  my  dream  has  a  meaning,"  cried  the 
surgeon. 

"Oh,  oh !"  cried  Bodard,  waking,  "my  leg  is  asleep !" 

'TTour  animalcules  are  dead,"  said  his  wife. 

"That  man  has  a  vocation,"  said  my  neighbor,  who  had' 
imperturbably  stared  at  the  surgeon  all  the  time  he  was 
talking. 

"It  is  to  Monsieur's  vocation  what  action  is  to  speech, 
or  the  body  to  the  soul,"  said  the  ugly  guest. 

But  his  tongue  was  heavy,  and  he  got  confused;  he  could 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  S23 

only  utter  unintelligible  words.  Happily,  the  conversation 
took  another  turn.  By  the  end  of  half  an  hour  we  had  for- 
gotten the  surgeon  to  the  Court  pages,  and  he  was  asleep. 

When  we  rose  from  table,  the  rain  was  pouring  in  tor- 
rents. 

"The  lawyer  is  no  fool,"  said  I  to  Beaumarchais. 

"Oh !  he  is  dull  and  cold.  But  you  see  the  provinces  can 
still  produce  good  folks  who  take  political  theories  and  the 
history  of  France  quite  seriously.  It  is  a  leaven  that  will 
spread." 

"Have  you  a  carriage  ?"  Madame  de  Saint- James  asked  me. 

"ISTo,"  said  I  shortly.  "I  did  not  know  that  I  should  want 
it  this  evening.  You  thought,  perhaps,  that  I  should  take 
home  the  Controller-General?  Did  he  come  to  your  house 
en  polissonf"  (the  fashionable  name  at  the  time  for  a  person 
who  drove  his  own  carriage  at  Marly  dressed  as  a  coachman). 
Madame  de  Saint-James  left  me  hastily,  rang  the  bell,  ordered 
her  husband's  carriage,  and  took  the  lawyer  aside. 

"Monsieur  de  Robespierre,  will  you  do  me  the  favor  of  see- 
ing Monsieur  Marat  home,  for  he  is  incapable  of  standing 
upright?"  said  she. 

"With  pleasure,  madame,"  replied  Monsieur  de  Eobespierre 
with  an  air  of  gallantry ;  "I  wish  you  had  ordered  me  to  do 
something  more  difficult." 

Pa£I8,  JaniMry  1828. 


324  ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDIOI 


NOTE. 

This  is  the  song  published  by  the  Abb6  de  la  Place  in  his  collec- 
tion of  interesting  fragments,  in  which  may  be  found  the  disserta- 
tion alluded  to.  [It  will  be  seen  that  it  goes  to  the  old  tune  of 
Malbrouk  s'en  va-t-en  guerre.] 

THE  DUG  DE  GUISE'S  BURIAL. 

Qui  vent  ouir  chanson?  (Bis.) 
C'est  du  Grand  Due  de  Guise; 

Et  bon  bon  bon  bon, 

Di  dan  di  dan  don, 
C'est  du  Grand  Due  de  Guise! 
(This  last  line  was  spolien,  no  doubt,  in  a  comic  tone.) 
Qui  est  mort  et  enterri. 

Qui  est  mort  et  enterr§.    {Bis.) 
Aux  quatre  coins  du  poSle, 

Et  bon  bon  bon  bon, 

Di  dan  di  dan  don. 
Quatre  gentilshomm^s  y  avoit. 

Quatre  gentilshomm's  y  avoit    {Bis.) 
L'un  portoit  son  grand  casque, 

Et  bon,  etc. 
Et  Vautre  ses  pistolets. 

Bt  I'autre  ses  pistolets.   {Bis.)  ' 

Et  I'autre  son  §pge, 

Et  bon,  etc. 
Qui  tant  d'Hugu'nots  a  tuis. 

Qui  tant  d'Hugu'nots  a  tu6s.   {Bis.) 
Venoit  le  quatriSme, 

Et  bon,  etc. 
Qui  itoit  le  plus  dolent. 


ABOUT  CATHERINE  DE'  MEDICI  325 

Qui  etoit  le  plus  dolent;   (Bis.) 
Aprfes  venoient  les  pages, 

Et  bon,  etc. 
Et  les  valets  de  pied. 

Et  les  valets  de  pied,  (Bis.) 
Avecque  de  grands  crgpes, 

Et  bon,  etc. 
Et  des  souliers  ciris. 

Et  des  souliers  cir6s.  (Bis.) 
Et  des  beaux  bas  d'estame, 

Et  bon,  etc. 
Et  des  culottes  de  piau. 

Et  des  culottes  de  piau.  (Bi8.) 
La  c6remonie  faite, 

Et  bon,  etc., 
Chacun  s'alla  coucher. 

Chacun  s'alla  coucher:   (Bis.)  ' 

Les  uns  avec  leurs  femmes, 

Et  bon,  etc. 
Et  les  autres  tout  seuls. 

The  discovery  of  these  curious  verses  seems  to  prove,  to  a  cer- 
tain extent,  the  guilt  of  Theodore  de  Beze,  who  tried  to  mitigate 
the  horror  caused  by  this  murder  by  turning  it  to  ridicule.  The 
principal  merit  of  this  song  lay,  it  would  appear,  in  the  tune. 


GAMBARA 


CorYEIQHT,  1898, 

Bt  J.  M.  DENT  &  COMPANY 


GAMBARA 

To  Monsieur  le  Marquis  de  Belloy 

It  was  sitting  by  the  fire,  in  a  mysterious  and  magnincent  retreat, 
— now  a  thing  of  the  past  but  surviving  in  our  memory, — whence 
our  eyes  commanded  a  view  of  Paris  from  the  heights  of  Bellevue 
to  those  of  Belleville,  from  Montmartre  to  the  triumphal  Arc  de 
rfJtoile,  that  one  morning,  refreshed  by  tea,  amid  the  myriad  sug- 
gestions that  shoot  up  and  die  like  rockets  from  your  sparkling  flow 
of  talk ,  lavish  of  ideas,  you  tossed  to  my  pen  a  figure  worthy  of 
Hofi'mann, — ^that  casket  of  unrecognized  gems,  that  pilgrim  seated  at 
the  gate  of  Paradise  with  ears  to  hear  the  songs  of  the  angels  but  no 
longer  a  tongue  to  repeat  them,  playing  on  the  ivory  keys  with  fingers 
crippled  by  the  stress  of  divine  inspiration,  believing  that  he  is  ex- 
pressing celestial  music  to  his  bewildered  listeners. 

It  was  you  who  created  Gambaka  ;  I  have  only  clothed  him.  Let 
me  render  unto  Csesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's,  regretting  only 
that  you  do  not  yourself  take  up  the  pen  at  a  time  when  gentlemen 
ought  to  wield  it  as  well  as  the  sword,  if  they  are  to  save  their 
country.    You  may  neglect  yourself,  but  you  owe  your  talents  to  us. 

New  Year's  Day  of  1831  was  pouring  out  its  packets  of 
sugared  almonds,  four  o'clock  was  striking,  there  was  a  mob 
in  the  Palais-Koyal,  and  the  eating-houses  were  beginning  to 
fill.  At  this  moment  a  coupe  drew  up  at  the  'perron  and  a 
young  man  stepped  out;  a  man  of  haughty  appearance,  and. 
no  doubt  a  foreigner;  otherwise  he  would  not  have  displayed 
the  aristocratic  chasseur  who  attended  him  in  a  plumed  hat, 
nor  the  coat  of  arms  which  the  heroes  of  July  still  attacked. 
This  gentleman  went  into  the  Palais-Royal,  and  followed 

(327) 


828  GAMBARA 

the  crowd  round  the  galleries,  unamazed  at  the  slowness  to 
which  the  throng  of  loungers  reduced  his  pace;  he  seemed 
accustomed  to  the  stately  step  which  is  ironically  nicknamed 
the  ambassador's  strut;  still,  his  dignity  had  a  touch  of  the 
theatrical.  Though  his  features  were  handsome  and  impos- 
ing, his  hat,  from  beneath  which  thick  black  curls  stood  out, 
was  perhaps  tilted  a  little  too  much  over  the  right  ear,  and 
belied  his  gravity  by  a  too  rakish  effect.  His  eyes,  inatten- 
tive and  half  closed,  looked  down  disdainfully  on  the  crowd. 

"There  goes  a  remarkably  good-looking  young  man,"  said 
a  girl  in  a  low  voice,  as  she  made  way  for  him  to  pass. 

"And  who  is  only  too  well  aware  of  it !"  replied  her  com- 
panion aloud — who  was  very  plain. 

After  walking  all  round  the  arcades,  the  young  man 
looked  by  turns  at  the  sky  and  at  his  watch,  and  with  a 
shrug  of  impatience  went  into  a  tobacconist's  shop,  lighted 
a  cigar,  and  placed  himself  in  front  of  a  looking-glass  to 
glance  at  his  costume,  which  was  rather  more  ornate  than 
the  rules  of  French  taste  allow.  He  pulled  down  his  collar 
and  his  black  velvet  waistcoat,  over  which  hung  many  fes- 
toons of  the  thick  gold  chain  that  is  made  at  Venice;  then, 
having  arranged  the  folds  of  his  cloak  by  a  single  jerk  of 
his  left  shoulder,  draping  it  gracefully  so  as  to  show  the 
velvet  lining,  he  started  again  on  parade,  indifferent  to  the 
glances  of  the  vulgar. 

As  soon  as  the  shops  were  lighted  up  and  the  dusk  seemed 
to  him  black  enough,  he  went  out  into  the  square  in  front 
of  the  Palais-Eoyal,  but  as  a  man  anxious  not  to  be  recog- 
nized ;  for  he  kept  close  under  the  houses  as  far  as  the  foun- 
tain, screened  by  the  hackney-cab  stand,  till  he  reached  the 
Kue  Froid-Manteau,  a  dirty,  poky,  disreputable  street — a 
sort  of  sewer  tolerated  by  the  police  close  to  the  purified 
purlieus  of  the  Palais-Eoyal,  as  an  Italian  major-domo 
allows  a  careless  servant  to  leave  the  sweepings  of  the  rooms 
in  a  corner  of  the  staircase. 

The  young  man  hesitated.  He  might  have  been  a  bedizened 
citizen's  wife  craning  her  neck  over  a  gutter  swollen  by  the 


iA 


■..::.  t' 


OAVR^  *'  » 

and  the  ^--  ' 
ong  of  ' 
.  the  stai 

'■u>  slownees  to 
;  he  seemed 

y  nicknamed 
c  touch  of  the 

.     Thou, 

>Lne  and  impos- 
rls  stood  out, 

iht  ear,  and 

ves,  inatten- 

,1  the  crowd. 

i^  man/'  said 
ler  coin- 

nan 

h  a 

.*..r< 

Count  Andrea  Marcosini 


>!,  ,  j{  many  fes- 

:  a  i  ee;  then, 

-hk    ,  -  -  i^^^  ^^ 

fully  i*>  **^  to  show  the 
.T^^   ;  ,.];fTtrpnt  to  the 


.  ,M  r 


•  v.h:  ausk  seemed 
."  scjuare  in  front 
1..UH  not  to  be  recog 
<,jv    i.,,i^e««  as  far  as  the  foun- 
anh  stand,  till  he  reached  the 
.   poky,   diisreputablo 
/;e  police  close  to  'm 
il,   as   an    Italian 
-ave  the  ? .--■■- 


GAMBARA  329 

Jrain.  But  the  hour  was  not  unpropitious  for  the  indulgence 
of  some  discreditable  whim.  Earlier,  he  might  have  been  de- 
tected; later,  he  might  find  himself  cut  out.  Tempted  by  a 
glance  which  is  encouraging  without  being  inviting,  to  have 
followed  a  young  and  pretty  woman  for  an  hour,  or  perhaps 
for  a  day,  thinking  of  her  as  a  divinity  and  excusing  her  light 
conduct  by  a  thousand  reasons  to  her  advantage;  to  have 
allowed  oneself  to  believe  in  a  sudden  and  irresistible  affinity ; 
to  have  pictured,  under  the  promptings  of  transient  excite- 
ment, a  love-adventure  in  an  age  when  romances  are  written 
precisely  because  they  never  happen;  to  have  dreamed  of 
balconies,  guitars,  stratagems,  and  bolts,  enwrapped  in  Alma- 
viva's  cloak;  and,  after  inditing  a  poem  in  fanc}^,  to  stop  at 
the  door  of  a  house  of  ill-fame,  and,  crowning  all,  to  discern 
in  Eosina's  bashfulness  a  reticence  imposed  by  the  police — 
is  not  all  this,  I  say,  an  experience  familiar  to  many  a  man 
who  would  not  own  it? 

The  most  natural  feelings  are  those  we  are  least  willing  to 
confess,  and  among  them  is  fatuity.  When  the  lesson  is 
carried  no  further,  the  Parisian  profits  by  it,  or  forgets  it, 
and  no  great  harm  is  done.  But  this  would  hardly  be  the 
case  with  this  foreigner,  who  was  beginning  to  think  he  might 
pay  too  dearly  for  his  Paris  education. 

This  personage  was  a  Milanese  of  good  family,  exiled 
from  his  native  country,  where  some  "liberal"  pranks  had 
made  him  an  object  of  suspicion  to  the  Austrian  Government. 
Count  Andrea  Marcosini  had  been  welcomed  in  Paris  with 
the  cordiality,  essentially  French,  that  a  man  always  finds 
there,  when  he  has  a  pleasant  wit,  a  sounding  name,  two  hun- 
dred thousand  francs  a  year,  and  a  prepossessing  person.  To 
such  a  man  banishment  could  but  be  a  pleasvire  tour;  his 
property  was  simply  sequestrated,  and  his  friends  let  him 
know  that  after  an  absence  of  two  years  he  might  return  to 
his  native  land  without  danger. 

After  rhyming  crudeli  affanni  with  i  miei  tiranni  in  a  dozen 
or  so  of  sonnets,  and  maintaining  as  many  hapless  Italian 
refugees  out  of  his  own  purse,  Count  Andrea,  who  was  so 


330  GAMBARA 

unlucky  as  to  be  a  poet,  thought  himself  released  from  pa- 
triotic obligations.  So,  ever  since  his  arrival,  he  had  given 
himself  up  recklessly  to  the  pleasures  of  every  kind  which 
Paris  offers  gratis  to  those  who  can  pay  for  them.  His 
talents  and  his  handsome  person  won  him  success  among 
women,  whom  he  adored  collectively  as  beseemed  his  years, 
but  among  whom  he  had  not  as  yet  distinguished  a  chosen 
one.  And  indeed  this  taste  was,  in  him,  subordinate  to  those 
for  music  and  poetry  which  he  had  cultivated  from  his  child- 
hood; and  he  thought  success  in  these  both  more  difficult 
and  more  glorious  to  achieve  than  in  affairs  of  gallantry,  since 
nature  had  not  inflicted  on  him  the  obstacles  men  take  most 
pride  in  defying. 

A  man,  like  many  another,  of  complex  nature,  he  was  easily 
fascinated  by  the  comfort  of  luxury,  without  which  he  could 
hardly  have  lived;  and,  in  the  same  way,  he  clung  to  the 
social  distinctions  which  his  principles  contemned.  Thus  his 
theories  as  an  artist,  a  thinker,  and  a  poet  were  in  frequent 
antagonism  with  his  tastes,  his  feelings,  and  his  habits  as  a 
man  of  rank  and  wealth;  but  he  comforted  himself  for  his 
inconsistencies  by  recognizing  them  in  many  Parisians,  like 
himself  liberal  by  policy  and  aristocrats  by  nature. 

Hence  it  was  not  without  some  uneasiness  that  he  found 
himself,  on  December  31,  1830,  under  a  Paris  thaw,  following 
at  the  heels  of  a  woman  whose  dress  betrayed  the  most  abject, 
inveterate,  and  long-accustomed  poverty,  who  was  no  hand- 
somer than  a  hundred  others  to  be  seen  any  evening  at  the 
play,  at  the  opera,  in  the  world  of  fashion,  and  who  was  cer- 
tainly not  so  young  as  Madame  de  Manerville,  from  whom  he 
had  obtained  an  assignation  for  that  very  day,  and  who  was 
perhaps  waiting  for  him  at  that  very  hour. 

But  in  the  glance  at  once  tender  and  wild,  swift  and  deep, 
which  that  woman's  black  eyes  had  shot  at  him  by  stealth, 
there  was  such  a  world  of  buried  sorrows  and  promised  joys ! 
And  she  had  colored  so  fiercely  when,  on  coming  out  of  a 
shop  where  she  had  lingered  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  her 
look  frankly  met  the  Count's,  who  had  been  waiting  for  her 


GAMBARA  831 

hard  by!  In  fact,  there  were  so  many  huts  and  ifs,  that, 
possessed  by  one  of  those  mad  temptations  for  which  there  is 
no  word  in  any  language,  not  even  in  that  of  the  orgy,  he  had 
set  out  in  pursuit  of  this  woman,  hunting  her  down  like  a 
hardened  Parisian. 

On  the  way,  whether  he  kept  behind  or  ahead  of  this  damsel, 
he  studied  every  detail  of  her  person  and  her  dress,  hoping 
to  dislodge  the  insane  and  ridiculous  fancy  that  had  taken  up 
an  abode  in  his  brain ;  but  he  presently  found  in  his  examina- 
tion a  keener  pleasure  than  he  had  felt  only  the  day  before 
in  gazing  at  the  perfect  shape  of  a  woman  he  loved,  as  she 
took  her  bath.  Now  and  again,  the  unknown  fair,  bending 
her  head,  gave  him  a  look  like  that  of  a  kid  tethered  with  its 
head  to  the  ground,  and  finding  herself  still  the  object  of  his 
pursuit,  she  hurried  on  as  if  to  fly.  Nevertheless,  each  time 
that  a  block  of  carriages,  or  any  other  delay,  brought  Andrea 
to  her  side,  he  saw  her  turn  away  from  his  gaze  without  any 
signs  of  annoyance.  These  signals  of  restrained  feelings 
spurred  the  frenzied  dreams  that  had  run  away  with  him, 
and  he  gave  them  the  rein  as  far  as  the  Kue  Froid-Manteau, 
down  which,  after  many  windings,  the  damsel  vanished, 
thinking  she  had  thus  spoilt  the  scent  of  her  pursuer,  who 
was,  in  fact,  startled  by  this  move. 

It  was  now  quite  dark.  Two  women,  tattooed  with  rouge, 
who  were  drinking  black-currant  liqueur  at  a  grocer's 
counter,  saw  the  young  woman  and  called  her.  She  paused 
at  the  door  of  the  shop,  replied  in  a  few  soft  words  to  the 
cordial  greeting  offered  her,  and  went  on  her  way.  Andrea, 
who  was  behind  her,  saw  her  turn  into  one  of  the  darkest 
yards  out  of  this  street,  of  which  he  did  not  know  the  name. 
The  repulsive  appearance  of  the  house  where  the  heroine  of 
his  romance  had  been  swallowed  up  made  him  feel  sick.  He 
drew  back  a  step  to  study  the  neighborhood,  and  finding  an 
ill-looking  man  at  his  elbow,  he  asked  him  for  information. 
The  man,  who  held  a  knotted  stick  in  his  right  hand,  placed 
the  left  on  his  hip  and  replied  in  a  single  word: 

"Scoundrel !" 


882  GAMBARA 

But  on  looking  at  the  Italian,  who  stood  in  the  light  of  a 
street-lamp,  he  assumed  a  servile  expression. 

"I  beg  your  pardon,  sir,"  said  he,  suddenly  changing  his 
tone.  "There  is  a  restaurant  near  this,  a  sort  of  table-d'hote, 
where  the  cooking  is  pretty  bad  and  they  serve  cheese  in  the 
soup.  Monsieur  is  in  search  of  the  place,  perhaps,  for  it  is 
easy  to  see  that  he  is  an  Italian — Italians  are  fond  of  velvet 
and  of  cheese.  But  if  monsieur  would  like  to  know  of  a  better 
eating-house,  an  aunt  of  mine,  who  lives  a  few  steps  off,  is 
very  fond  of  foreigners." 

Andrea  raised  his  cloak  as  high  as  his  moustache,  and 
fled  from  the  street,  spurred  by  the  disgust  he  felt  at  this  foul 
person,  whose  clothes  and  manner  were  in  harmony  with  the 
squalid  house  into  which  the  fair  unknown  had  vanished. 
He  returned  with  rapture  to  the  thousand  luxuries  of  his  own 
rooms,  and  spent  the  evening  at  the  Marquise  d'Espard's  to 
cleanse  himself,  if  possible,  of  the  smirch  left  by  the  fancy 
that  had  driven  him  so  relentlessly  during  the  day. 

And  yet,  when  he  was  in  bed,  the  vision  came  back  to  him, 
but  clearer  and  brighter  than  the  reality.  The  girl  was 
walking  in  front  of  him ;  now  and  again  as  she  stepped  across 
a  ^tter  her  skirts  revealed  a  round  calf;  her  shapely  hips 
swayed  as  she  walked.  Again  Andrea  longed  to  speak  to  her 
— and  he  dared  not,  he,  Marcosini,  a  Milanese  nobleman! 
Then  he  saw  her  turn  into  the  dark  passage  where  she  had 
eluded  him,  and  blamed  himself  for  not  having  followed  her. 

"For,  after  all,"  said  he  to  himself,  "if  she  really  wished 
to  avoid  me  and  put  me  off  her  track,  it  is  because  she  loves 
me.  With  women  of  that  stamp,  coyness  is  a  proof  of  love. 
Well,  if  I  had  carried  the  adventure  any  further,  it  would, 
perhaps,  have  ended  in  disgust.    I  will  sleep  in  peace." 

The  Count  was  in  the  habit  of  analyzing  his  keenest  sensa- 
tions, as  men  do  involuntarily  when  they  have  as  much  brains 
as  heart,  and  he  was  surprised  when  he  saw  the  strange 
damsel  of  the  Kue  Froid-Manteau  once  more,  not  in  the 
pictured  splendor  of  his  dream  but  in  the  bare  reality  of 
dreary  fact.    And,  in  spite  of  it  all,  if  fancy  had  stripped 


GaMBARA  833 

the  woman  of  her  livery  of  misery,  it  would  have  spoilt  her 
for  him ;  for  he  wanted  her,  he  longed  for  her,  he  loved  her — 
with  her  muddy  stockings,  her  slipshod  feet,  her  straw  bon- 
net !  He  wanted  her  in  the  very  house  where  he  had  seen  her 
go  in. 

"Am  I  bewitched  by  vice,  then?"  he  asked  himself  in  dis- 
may. "Nay,  I  have  not  yet  reached  that  point.  I  am  but 
three-and-twenty,  and  there  is  nothing  of  the  senile  fop  about 
me." 

The  very  vehemence  of  the  whim  that  held  possession  of 
him  to  some  extent  reassured  him.  This  strange  struggle, 
these  reflections,  and  this  love  in  pursuit  may  perhaps  puzzle 
some  persons  who  are  accustomed  to  the  ways  of  Paris  life; 
but  they  may  be  reminded  that  Count  Andrea  Marcosini  was 
not  a  Frenchman. 

Brought  up  by  two  abbes,  who,  in  obedience  to  a  very  pious 
father,  had  rarely  let  him  out  of  their  sight,  Andrea  had  not 
fallen  in  love  with  a  cousin  at  the  age  of  eleven,  or  seduced 
his  mother's  maid  by  the  time  he  was  twelve;  he  had  not 
studied  at  school,  where  a  lad  does  not  learn  only,  or  best, 
the  subjects  prescribed  by  the  State;  he  had  lived  in  Paris 
but  a  few  years,  and  he  was  still  open  to  those  sudden  but 
deep  impressions  against  which  French  education  and  man- 
ners are  so  strong  a  protection.  In  southern  lands  a  great 
passion  is  often  born  of  a  glance.  A  gentleman  of  Gascony 
who  had  tempered  strong  feelings  by  much  reflection  had 
fortified  himself  by  many  little  recipes  against  sudden  apo- 
plexies of  taste  and  heart,  and  he  advised  the  Count  to  in- 
dulge at  least  once  a  month  in  a  wild  orgy  to  avert  those 
storms  of  the  soul  which,  but  for  such  precautions,  are  apt  to 
break  out  at  inappropriate  moments.  Andrea  now  remem- 
bered this  advice. 

"Well,"  thought  he,  "I  will  begin  to-morrow,  January  1st." 

This  explains  why  Count  Andrea  Marcosini  hovered  so 
shyly  before  turning  down  the  Eue  Froid-Manteau.  The 
man  of  fashion  hampered  the  lover,  and  he  hesitated  for  some 


834  GAMBARA 

time ;  but  after  a  final  appeal  to  his  courage  he  went  on  with 
a  firm  step  as  far  as  the  house,  which  he  recognized  without 
difficulty. 

There  he  stopped  once  more.  Was  the  woman  really  what 
he  fancied  her  ?    Was  he  not  on  the  verge  of  som^  false  move  ? 

At  this  juncture  he  remembered  the  Italian  table-d'hote, 
and  at  once  jumped  at  a  middle  course,  which  would  serve 
the  ends  alike  of  his  curiosity  and  of  his  reputation.  He 
went  in  to  dine,  and  made  his  way  down  the  passage;  at  the 
bottom,  after  feeling  about  for  some  time,  he  found  a  stair- 
case with  damp,  slippery  steps,  such  as  to  an  Italian  noble- 
man could  only  seem  a  ladder. 

Invited  to  the  first  floor  by  the  glimmer  of  a  lamp  and  a 
strong  smell  of  cooking,  he  pushed  a  door  which  stood  ajar 
and  saw  a  room  dingy  with  dirt  and  smoke,  where  a  wench 
was  busy  laying  a  table  for  about  twenty  customers.  None  of 
the  guests  had  yet  arrived. 

After  looking  round  the  dimly  lighted  room  where  the 
paper  was  dropping  in  rags  from  the  walls,  the  gentleman 
seated  himself  by  a  stove  which  was  roaring  and  smoking  in 
the  corner. 

Attracted  by  the  noise  the  Count  made  in  coming  in  and 
disposing  of  his  cloak,  the  major-domo  presently  appeared. 
Picture  to  yourself  a  lean,  dried-up  cook,  very  tall,  with  a 
nose  of  extravagant  dimensions,  casting  about  him  from  time 
to  time,  with  feverish  keenness,  a  glance  that  he  meant  to  be 
cautious.  On  seeing  Andrea,  whose  attire  bespoke  consid- 
erable affluence,  Signor  Giardini  bowed  respectfully. 

The  Count  expressed  his  intention  of  taking  his  meals  as 
a  rule  in  the  society  of  some  of  his  fellow-countrymen;  he 
paid  in  advance  for  a  certain  number  of  tickets,  and  ingenu- 
ously gave  the  conversation  a  familiar  bent  to  enable  him  to 
achieve  his  purpose  quickly. 

Hardly  had  he  mentioned  the  woman  he  was  seeking  when 
Signor  Giardini,  with  a  grotesque  shrug,  looked  knowingly 
at  his  customer,  a  bland  smile  on  his  lips. 

"Basta!"  he  exclaimed.    "Capisco.    Your  Excellency  has 


GAMBABA  885 

come  spurred  by  two  appetites.  La  Signora  Gambara  will 
not  have  wasted  her  time  if  she  has  gained  the  interest  of  a 
gentleman  so  generous  as  you  appear  to  be.  I  can  tell  you 
in  a  few  words  all  we  know  of  the  woman,  who  is  really  to  be 
pitied. 

"The  husband  is,  I  believe,  a  native  of  Cremona  and  has 
just  come  here  from  Germany.  He  was  hoping  to  get  the 
Tedeschi  to  try  some  new  music  and  some  new  instruments^ 
Isn't  it  pitiable?"  said  Giardini,  shrugging  his  shoulders. 
"Signor  Gambara,  who  thinks  himself  a  great  composer,  does 
not  seem  to  me  very  clever  in  other  ways.  An  excellent  fel- 
low with  sense  and  wit,  and  sometimes  very  agreeable,  espe- 
cially when  he  has  had  a  few  glasses  of  wine — ^which  does  not 
often  happen,  for  he  is  desperately  poor;  night  and  day  he 
toils  at  imaginary  symphonies  and  operas  instead  of  trying 
to  earn  an  honest  living.  His  poor  wife  is  reduced  to  working 
for  all  sorts  of  people — the  women  on  the  streets !  What  is  to 
be  said  ?  She  loves  her  husband  like  a  father,  and  takes  care 
of  him  like  a  child. 

"Many  a  young  man  has  dined  here  to  pay  his  court  to 
madame;  but  not  one  has  succeeded,"  said  he,  emphasizing 
the  word.  "La  Signora  Marianna  is  an  honest  woman,  mon- 
sieur, much  too  honest,  worse  luck  for  her !  Men  give  nothing 
for  nothing  nowadays.    So  the  poor  soul  will  die  in  harness. 

"And  do  you  suppose  that  her  husband  rewards  her  for  her 
devotion?  Pooh,  my  lord  never  gives  her  a  smile!  And 
all  their  cooking  is  done  at  the  baker's ;  for  not  only  does  the 
wretched  man  never  earn  a  sou;  he  spends  all  his  wife  can 
make  on  instruments  which  he  carves,  and  lengthens,  and 
shortens,  and  sets  up  and  takes  to  pieces  again  till  they  pro- 
duce sounds  that  would  scare  a  cat;  then  he  is  happy.  And 
yet  you  will  find  him  the  mildest,  the  gentlest  of  men.  And, 
he  is  not  idle ;  he  is  always  at  it.  What  is  to  be  said  ?  He  is 
crazy  and  does  not  know  his  business.  I  have  seen  him,  mon- 
sieur, filing  and  forging  his  instruments  and  eating  black 
bread  with  an  appetite  that  I  envied  him — I,  who  have  the 
best  table  in  Paris. 


8M  QAMBARA 

"Yes,  Excellenza,  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour  you  shall  know 
the  man  I  am.  I  have  introduced  certain  refinements  into 
Italian  cookery  that  will  amaze  you !  Excellenza,  I  am  a 
Neapolitan — that  is  to  say,  a  born  cook.  But  of  what  use  is 
instinct  without  knowledge?  Knowledge!  I  have  spent 
thirty  years  in  acquiring  it,  and  you  see  where  it  has  left  me. 
My  history  is  that  of  every  man  of  talent.  My  attempts,  my 
experiments,  have  ruined  three  restaurants  in  succession  at 
Naples,  Parma,  and  Kome.  To  this  day,  when  I  am  reduced 
to  make  a  trade  of  my  art,  I  more  often  than  not  give  way 
to  my  ruling  passion.  I  give  these  poor  refugees  some  of  my 
choicest  dishes.  I  ruin  myself!  Folly!  you  will  say?  I 
know  it;  but  how  can  I  help  it?  Genius  carries  me  away, 
and  I  cannot  resist  concocting  a  dish  which  smiles  on  my 
fancy. 

"And  they  always  know  it,  the  rascals!  They  know,  I 
can  promise  you,  whether  I  or  my  wife  has  stood  over  the 
fire.  And  what  is  the  consequence  ?  Of  sixty-odd  customers 
whom  I  used  to  see  at  my  table  every  day  when  I  first  started 
in  this  wretched  place,  I  now  see  twenty  on  an  average,  and 
give  them  credit  for  the  most  part.  The  Piedmontese,  the 
Savoyards,  have  deserted,  but  the  connoisseurs,  the  true 
Italians,  remain.  And  there  is  no  sacrifice  that  I  would  not 
make  for  them.  I  often  give  them  a  dinner  for  five  and 
twenty  sous  which  has  cost  me  double." 

Signor  Giardini's  speech  had  such  a  full  flavor  of  Nea- 
politan cunning  that  the  Count  was  delighted,  and  could  have 
fancied  himself  at  Gerolamo's. 

"Since  that  is  the  case,  my  good  friend,"  said  he  familiarly 
to  the  cook,  "and  since  chance  and  your  confidence  have  let 
me  into  the  secret  of  your  daily  sacrifices,  allow  me  to  pay 
double.'* 

As  he  spoke  Andrea  spun  a  forty-franc  piece  on  the  stove, 
out  of  which  Giardini  solemnly  gave  him  two  francs  and  fifty 
centimes  in  change,  not  without  a  certain  ceremonious  mys- 
tery that  amused  him  hugely. 

"In  a  few  minutes  now,"  the  man  added,  "you  will  see  you? 


GAMBARA  887 

donnina.  I  will  seat  you  next  the  husband,  and  if  you  wish  to 
stand  in  his  good  graces,  talk  about  music.  I  have  invited 
every  one  for  this  evening,  poor  things.  Being  New  Year's 
Day,  I  am  treating  the  company  to  a  dish  in  which  I  believe  I 
have  surpassed  myself."  i 

Signor  Giardini's  voice  was  drowned  by  the  noisy  greetings 
of  the  guests,  who  streamed  in  two  and  two,  or  one  at  a  time, 
after  the  manner  of  tables-d'hote.  Giardini  stayed  by  the 
Count,  playing  the  showman  by  telling  him  who  the  company 
were.  He  tried  by  his  witticisms  to  bring  a  smile  to  the  lips  of 
a  man  who,  as  his  Neapolitan  instinct  told  him,  might  be  a 
wealthy  patron  to  turn  to  good  account. 

"This  one,"  said  he,  "is  a  poor  composer  who  would  like 
to  rise  from  song-writing  to  opera,  and  cannot.  He  blames 
the  managers,  music-sellers, — everybody,  in  fact,  but  him- 
self, and  he  has  no  worse  enemy.  You  can  see — what  a  florid 
complexion,  what  self-conceit,  how  little  firmness  in  his  fea- 
tures !  he  is  made  to  write  ballads.  The  man  who  is  with  him, 
and  looks  like  a  match-hawker,  is  a  great  musical  celebrity — 
Gigelmi,  the  greatest  Italian  conductor  known;  but  he  has 
gone  deaf,  and  is  ending  his  days  in  penury,  deprived  of  all 
that  made  it  tolerable.  Ah !  here  comes  our  great  Ottoboni, 
the  most  guileless  old  fellow  on  earth ;  but  he  is  suspected  of 
being  the  most  vindictive  of  all  who  are  plotting  for  the  re- 
generation of  Italy.  I  cannot  think  how  they  can  bear  to 
banish  such  a  good  old  man." 

And  here  Giardini  looked  narrowly  at  the  Count,  who, 
feeling  himself  under  inquisition  as  to  his  politics,  entrenched 
himself  in  Italian  impassibility. 

"A  man  whose  business  it  is  to  cook  for  all  comers  can  have 
no  political  opinions,  Excellenza,"  Giardini  went  on.  "But 
to  see  that  worthy  man,  who  looks  more  like  a  lamb  than  a 
lion,  everybody  would  say  what  I  say,  were  it  before  the 
Austrian  ambassador  himself.  Besides,  in  these  times  liberty 
is  no  longer  proscribed;  it  is  going  its  rounds  again.  At 
least,  so  these  good  people  think,"  said  he,  leaning  over  to 
speak  in  the  Count's  ear,  "and  why  should  I  thwart  their 


388  6AMBABA 

hopes  ?  I,  for  my  part,  do  not  hate  an  absolute  government. 
Excellenza,  every  man  of  talent  is  for  despotism ! 

"Well,  though  full  of  genius,  Ottoboni  takes  no  end  of 
pains  to  educate  Italy;  he  writes  little  books  to  enlighten 
the  intelligence  of  the  children  and  the  common  people,  and 
he  smuggles  them  very  cleverly  into  Italy.  He  takes  im- 
.mense  trouble  to  reform  the  moral  sense  of  our  luckless  coun- 
try, which,  after  all,  prefers  pleasure  to  freedom, — and  per- 
haps it  is  right." 

The  Count  preserved  such  an  impenetrable  attitude  that 
the  cook  could  discover  nothing  of  his  political  views. 

"Ottoboni,"  he  ran  on,  "is  a  saint;  very  kind-hearted;  all 
the  refugees  are  fond  of  him ;  for,  Excellenza,  a  liberal  may 
have  his  virtues.  Oho !  Here  comes  a  journalist,"  said 
Giardini,  as  a  man  came  in  dressed  in  the  absurd  way  which 
used  to  be  attributed  to  a  poet  in  a  garret ;  his  coat  was  thread- 
bare, his  boots  split,  his  hat  shiny,  and  his  overcoat  de- 
plorably ancient.  "Excellenza,  that  poor  man  is  full  of 
talent,  and  incorruptibly  honest.  He  was  born  into  the 
wrong  times,  for  he  tells  the  truth  to  everybody ;  no  one  can 
endure  him.  He  writes  theatrical  articles  for  two  small 
papers,  though  he  is  clever  enough  to  work  for  the  great 
dailies.    Poor  fellow ! 

"The  rest  are  not  worth  mentioning,  and  Your  Excellency 
will  find  them  out,"  he  concluded,  seeing  that  on  the  entrance 
of  the  musician's  wife  the  Count  had  ceased  to  listen  to  him. 

On  seeing  Andrea  here,  Signora  Marianna  started  visibly 
and  a  bright  flush  tinged  her  cheeks. 

"Here  he  is!"  said  Giardini,  in  an  undertone,  clutching 
the  Count's  arm  and  nodding  to  a  tall  man.  "How  pale 
and  grave  he  is,  poor  man !  His  hobby  has  not  trotted  to  his 
mind  to-day,  I  fancy." 

Andrea's  prepossession  for  Marianna  was  crossed  by  the 
captivating  charm  which  Gambara  could  not  fail  to  exert  over 
every  genuine  artist.  The  composer  was  now  forty;  but  al- 
though his  high  brow  was  bald  and  lined  with  a  few  parallel. 


GAMBARA  S3S 

but  not  deep,  wrinkles;  in  spite,  too,  of  hollow  temples 
where  the  blue  veins  showed  through  the  smooth,  transparent 
skin,  and  of  the  deep  sockets  in  which  his  black  eyes  were 
sunk,  with  their  large  lids  and  light  lashes,  the  lower  part 
of  his  face  made  him  still  look  young,  so  calm  was  its  outline, 
so  soft  the  modeling.  It  could  be  seen  at  a  glance  that  in  this 
man  passion  had  been  curbed  to  the  advantage  of  the  intel- 
lect; that  the  brain  alone  had  grown  old  in  some  great 
struggle. 

Andrea  shot  a  swift  look  at  Marianna,  who  was  watching 
him.  And  he  noted  the  beautiful  Italian  head,  the  exquisite 
proportion  and  rich  coloring  that  revealed  one  of  those  or- 
ganizations in  which  every  human  power  is  harmoniously 
balanced,  he  sounded  the  gulf  that  divided  this  couple, 
brought  together  by  fate.  Well  content  with  the  promise  he 
inferred  from  this  dissimilarity  between  the  husband  and 
wife,  he  made  no  attempt  to  control  a  liking  which  ought  to 
have  raised  a  barrier  between  the  fair  Marianna  and  himself. 
He  was  already  conscious  of  feeling  a  sort  of  respectful  pity 
for  this  man,  whose  only  joy  she  was,  as  he  understood  the 
dignified  and  serene  acceptance  of  ill  fortune  that  was  ex^ 
pressed  in  Gambara's  mild  and  melancholy  gaze. 

After  expecting  to  see  one  of  the  grotesque  figures  so  often 
set  before  us  by  German  novelists  and  writers  of  libretti, 
he  beheld  a  simple,  unpretentious  man,  whose  manners  and 
demeanor  were  in  nothing  strange  and  did  not  lack  dignity. 
Without  the  faintest  trace  of  luxury,  his  dress  was  more 
decent  than  might  have  been  expected  from  his  extreme  pov- 
erty, and  his  linen  bore  witness  to  the  tender  care  which 
watched  over  every  detail  of  his  existence.  Andrea  looked  at 
Marianna  with  moistened  eyes;  and  she  did  not  color,  but 
half  smiled,  in  a  way  that  betrayed,  perhaps,  some  pride  at 
this  speechless  homage.  The  Count,  too  thoroughly  fascinated 
to  miss  the  smallest  indication  of  complaisance,  fancied  that 
she  must  love  him,  since  she  understood  him  so  well. 

From  this  moment  he  set  himself  to  conquer  the  husband 
rather  than  the  wife,  turning  all  his  batteries  against  the  poor 


340  GAMBARA 

Gambara,  who  quite  guilelessly  went  on  eating  Signer  Giar- 
dini's  hocconi,  without  thinking  of  their  flavor. 

The  Count  opened  the  conversation  on  some  trivial  subject^ 
but  at  the  first  words  he  perceived  that  this  brain,  supposed  to 
be  infatuated  on  one  point,  was  remarkably  clear  on  all  others, 
and  saw  that  it  would  be  far  more  important  to  enter  into 
this  very  clever  man's  ideas  than  to  flatter  his  conceits. 

The  rest  of  the  company,  a  hungry  crew  whose  brain  only 
responded  to  the  sight  of  a  more  or  less  good  meal,  showed 
much  animosity  to  the  luckless  Gambara,  and  waited  only  till 
the  end  of  the  flrst  course,  to  give  free  vent  to  their  satire. 
A  refugee,  whose  frequent  leer  betrayed  ambitious  schemes 
on  Marianna,  and  who  fancied  he  could  establish  himself 
in  her  good  graces  by  trying  to  make  her  husband  ridiculous, 
opened  fire  to  show  the  newcomer  how  the  land  lay  at  the 
table-d'hote. 

"It  is  a  very  long  time  since  we  have  heard  anything  about 
the  opera  on  'Mahomet' !"  cried  he,  with  a  smile  at  Marianna. 
"Can  it  be  that  Paolo  Gambara,  wholly  given  up  to  domestic 
cares,  absorbed  by  the  charms  of  the  chimney-corner,  is  ne- 
glecting his  superhuman  genius,  leaving  his  talents  to  get 
cold  and  his  imagination  to  go  flat?" 

Gambara  knew  all  the  company;  he  dwelt  in  a  sphere  so 
far  above  them  all  that  he  no  longer  cared  to  repel  an  attack. 
He  made  no  reply. 

"It  is  not  given  to  everybody,"  said  the  journalist,  "to  have 
an  intellect  that  can  understand  Monsieur  Gambara's  musical 
efforts,  and  that,  no  doubt,  is  why  our  divine  maestro  hesi- 
tates to  come  before  the  worthy  Parisian  public." 

"And  yet,"  said  the  ballad-monger,  who  had  not  opened  his 
mouth  but  to  swallow  everything  that  came  within  his  reach, 
"I  know  some  men  of  talent  who  think  highly  of  the  judg- 
ments of  Parisian  critics.  I  myself  have  a  pretty  reputation 
as  a  musician,"  he  went  on,  with  an  air  of  diffidence.  "I  owe 
it  solely  to  my  little  songs  in  vaudevilles,  and  the  success  of 
my  dance  music  in  drawing-rooms;  but  I  propose  ere  long 
to  bring  out  a  mass  composed  for  the  anniversary  of  Bee- 


GAMBARA  341 

thoven's  death,  and  I  expect  to  be  better  appreciated  in  Paris 
than  anywhere  else.  You  will  perhaps  do  me  the  honor  of 
hearing  it  ?"  he  said,  turning  to  Andrea. 

"Thank  you/'  said  the  Count.  "But  I  do  not  conceive 
that  I  am  gifted  with  the  organs  needful  for  the  appreciation 
of  French  music.  If  you  were  dead,  monsieur,  and  Beethoven 
had  composed  the  mass,  I  would  not  have  failed  to  attend 
the  performance." 

This  retort  put  an  end  to  the  tactics  of  those  who  wanted 
to  set  Gambara  off  on  his  high  horse  to  amuse  the  new  guest. 
Andrea  was  already  conscious  of  an  unwillingness  to  expose 
so  noble  and  pathetic  a  mania  as  a  spectacle  for  so  much 
vulgar  shrewdness.  It  was  with  no  base  reservation  that  he 
kept  up  a  desultory  conversation,  in  the  course  of  which 
Signor  Giardini's  nose  not  infrequently  interposed  between 
two  remarks.  Whenever  Gambara  uttered  some  elegant 
repartee  or  some  paradoxical  aphorism,  the  cook  put  his  head 
forward,  to  glance  with  pity  at  the  musician  and  with  mean- 
ing at  the  Count,  muttering  in  his  ear,  "E  matto  !" 

Then  came  a  moment  when  the  chef  interrupted  the  flow 
of  his  judicial  observations  to  devote  himself  to  the  second 
course,  which  he  considered  highly  important.  During  his 
absence,  which  was  brief,  Gambara  leaned  across  to  address 
Andrea. 

"Our  worthy  host,"  said  he,  in  an  undertone,  "threatens  to 
regale  us  to-day  with  a  dish  of  his  own  concocting,  which  I 
recommend  you  to  avoid,  though  his  wife  has  had  an  eye  on 
him.  The  good  man  has  a  mania  for  innovations.  He  ruined 
himself  by  experiments,  the  last  of  which  compelled  him  to 
fly  from  Eome  'wdthout  a  passport — a  circumstance  he  does 
not  talk  about.  After  purchasing  the  good-will  of  a  popular 
restaurant  he  was  trusted  to  prepare  a  banquet  given  by  a 
lately  made  Cardinal,  whose  household  was  not  yet  complete. 
Giardini  fancied  he  had  an  opportunity  for  distinguishing 
himself — and  he  succeeded !  for  that  same  evening  he  was 
accused  of  trying  to  poison  the  whole  conclave,  and  was 
obliged  to  leave  Rome  and  Italy  without  waiting  to  pack  up. 


S42  GAMBABA 

This  disaster  was  the  last  straw.  Now,"  and  Gambara  put 
his  finger  to  his  forehead  and  shook  his  head. 

"He  is  a  good  fellow,  all  the  same,"  he  added.  "My  wife 
will  tell  3'ou  that  we  owe  him  many  a  good  turn." 

Giardini  now  came  in  carefully  bearing  a  dish  which  he 
set  in  the  middle  of  the  table,  and  he  then  modestly  resumed 
his  seat  next  to  Andrea,  whom  he  served  first.  As  soon  as  he 
had  tasted  the  mess,  the  Count  felt  that  an  impassable  gulf 
divided  the  second  mouthful  from  the  first.  He  was  much 
embarrassed,  and  very  anxious  not  to  annoy  the  cook,  who 
was  watching  him  narrowly.  Though  a  French  restaurateur 
may  care  little  about  seeing  a  dish  scorned  if  he  is  sure  of 
being  paid  for  it,  it  is  not  so  with  an  Italian,  who  is  not  often 
satiated  with  praises. 

To  gain  time,  Andrea  complimented  Giardini  enthusiastic- 
ally, but  he  leaned  over  to  whisper  in  his  ear,  and  slipping 
a  gold  piece  into  his  hand  under  the  table,  begged  him  to  go 
out  and  buy  a  few  bottles  of  champagne,  leaving  him  free  to 
take  all  the  credit  of  the  treat. 

When  the  Italian  returned,  every  plate  was  cleared,  and  the 
room  rang  with  praises  of  the  master-cook.  The  champagne 
soon  mounted  these  southern  brains,  and  the  conversation, 
till  now  subdued  in  the  stranger's  presence,  overleaped  the 
limits  of  suspicious  reserve  to  wander  far  over  the  wide  fields 
of  political  and  artistic  opinions. 

Andrea,  to  whom  no  form  of  intoxication  was  known  but 
those  of  love  and  poetry,  had  soon  gained  the  attention  of 
the  company  and  skilfully  led  it  to  a  discussion  of  matters 
musical. 

"Will  you  tell  me,  monsieur,"  said  he  to  the  composer  of 
dance-music,  "how  it  is  that  the  Napoleon  of  these  tunes 
can  condescend  to  usurp  the  place  of  Palestrina,  Pergolesi, 
and  Mozart, — poor  creatures  who  must  pack  and  vanish  at 
the  advent  of  that  tremendous  Mass  for  the  Dead  ?" 

"Well,  monsieur,"  replied  the  composer,  "a  musician  al- 
ways finds  it  difficult  to  reply  when  the  answer  needs  the  co- 
operation of  a  hundred  skilled  executants.     Mozart,  Haydn, 


GAMBARA  843 

and  Beethoven,  without  an  orchestra,  would  be  of  no  great 
account." 

"Of  no  great  account!"  said  Marcosini.  "Why,  all  the 
world  knows  that  the  immortal  author  of  Don  Oiovanni  and 
the  Requiem  was  named  Mozart ;  and  I  am  so  unhappy  as  not 
to  know  the  name  of  the  inexhaustible  writer  of  quadrilles 
which  are  so  popular  in  our  drawing-rooms " 

"Music  exists  independently  of  execution,"  said  the  re- 
tired conductor,  who,  in  spite  of  his  deafness,  had  caught  a 
few  words  of  the  conversation.  "As  he  looks  through  the 
C-minor  symphony  by  Beethoven,  a  musician  is  transported 
to  the  world  of  fancy  on  the  golden  wings  of  the  subject  in 
G-natural  repeated  by  the  horns  in  E.  He  sees  a  whole 
realm,  by  turns  glorious  in  dazzling  shafts  of  light,  gloomy 
under  clouds  of  melancholy,  and  cheered  by  heavenly  strains." 

"The  new  school  has  left  Beethoven  far  behind,"  said  the 
ballad-writer,  scornfully. 

"Beethoven  is  not  yet  understood,"  said  the  Count.  *TEow 
can  he  be  excelled?" 

Gambara  drank  a  large  glass  of  champagne,  accompanying 
the  draught  by  a  covert  smile  of  approval. 

"Beethoven,"  the  Count  went  on,  "extended  the  limits  of 
instrumental  music,  and  no  one  has  followed  in  his  track." 

Gambara  assented  with  a  nod. 

"His  work  is  especially  noteworthy  for  simplicity  of  con- 
struction cind  for  the  w-c\y  the  sclicmc  is  worked  out,"  the 
Count  went  on.  "Most  composers  make  use  of  the  orchestral 
parts  in  a  vague,  incoherent  way,  combining  them  for  a 
merely  temporary  effect;  they  do  not  persistently  contribute 
to  the  whole  mass  of  the  movement  by  their  steady  and  regu- 
lar progress.  Beethoven  assigns  its  part  to  each  tone-quality 
from  the  first.  Like  the  various  companies  which,  by  their  dis- 
ciplined movements,  contribute  to  winning  a  battle,  the  or- 
chestral parts  of  a  symphony  by  Beethoven  obey  the  plan 
ordered  for  the  interest  of  all,  and  are  subordinate  to  an 
admirably  conceived  scheme. 

"In  this  he  may  be  compared  to  a  genius  of  a  different 


344  GAMBARA 

type.  In  Walter  Scott's  splendid  historical  novels,  some 
personage,  who  seems  to  have  least  to  do  with  the  action  of 
the  story,  intervenes  at  a  given  moment  and  leads  up  to  the 
climax  by  some  thread  woven  into  the  plot." 

"E  vero!"  remarked  Gambara,  to  whom  common  sense 
seemed  to  return  in  inverse  proportion  to  sobriety. 

Andrea,  eager  to  carry  the  test  further,  for  a  moment  for- 
got all  his  predilections ;  he  proceeded  to  attack  the  European' 
fame  of  Rossini,  disputing  the  position  which  the  Italian 
school  has  taken  by  storm,  night  after  night  for  more  than 
thirty  years,  on  a  hundred  stages  in  Europe.  He  had  under- 
taken a  hard  task.  The  first  words  he  spoke  raised  a  strong 
murmur  of  disapproval;  but  neither  repeated  interruptions, 
nor  exclamations,  nor  frowns,  nor  contemptuous  looks,  could 
check  this  determined  advocate  of  Beethoven. 

"Compare,"  said  he,  "that  sublime  composer's  works  with 
what  by  common  consent  is  called  Italian  music.  What 
feebleness  of  ideas,  what  limpness  of  style !  That  monotony 
of  form,  those  commonplace  cadenzas,  those  endless  bravura 
passages  introduced  at  haphazard  irrespective  of  the  dra- 
matic situation,  that  recurrent  crescendo  that  Rossini  brought 
into  vogue,  are  now  an  integral  part  of  every  composition ; 
those  vocal  fireworks  result  in  a  sort  of  babbling,  chattering, 
vaporous  music,  of  which  the  sole  merit  depends  on  the 
greater  or  less  fluency  of  the  singer  and  his  rapidity  of 
vocalization. 

"The  Italian  school  has  lost  sight  of  the  high  mission  of 
art.  Instead  of  elevating  the  crowd,  it  has  condescended  to 
the  crowd;  it  has  won  its  success  only  by  accepting  the  suf- 
frages of  all  comers,  and  appealing  to  the  vulgar  minds  which 
constitute  the  majority.  Such  a  success  is  mere  street  jug- 
gling. _  .  .  '! 

"In  short,  the  compositions  of  Rossini,  in  whom  this  music- 
is  personified,  with  those  of  the  writers  who  are  more  or  less 
of  his  school,  to  me  seem  worthy  at  best  to  collect  a  crowd  in 
the  street  round  a  grinding  organ,  as  an  accompaniment  to 
the  capers  of  a  puppet  show.    I  even  prefer  French  music, 


GAMBARA  845 

and  I  can  say  no  more.  Long  live  German  music  l"  cried  he, 
*'when  it  is  tuneful/'  he  added  in  a  low  voice. 

This  sally  was  the  upshot  of  a  long  preliminary  discussion, 
in  which,  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  Andrea  had 
divagated  in  the  upper  sphere  of  metaphysics,  with  the  ease 
of  a  somnambulist  walking  over  the  roofs. 

Gambara,  keenly  interested  in  all  this  transcendentalism, 
had  not  lost  a  word;  he  took  up  his  parable  as  soon  as  An- 
drea seemed  to  have  ended,  and  a  little  stir  of  revived  atten- 
tion was  evident  among  the  guests,  of  whom  several  had  been 
about  to  leave. 

"You  attack  the  Italian  school  with  much  vigor,"  said  Gam- 
bara, somewhat  warmed  to  his  work  by  the  champagne,  "and, 
for  my  part,  you  are  very  welcome.  I,  thank  God,  stand  out- 
side this  more  or  less  melodic  frippery.  Still,  as  a  man  of 
the  world,  you  are  too  ungrateful  to  the  classic  land  whence 
Germany  and  France  derived  their  first  teaching.  While  the 
compositions  of  Carissimi,  Cavalli,  Scarlatti,  and  Rossi  were 
being  played  throughout  Italy,  the  violin  players  of  the 
Paris  opera  house  enjoyed  the  singular  privilege  of  being  al- 
lowed to  play  in  gloves.  Lulli,  who  extended  the  realm  of 
harmony,  and  was  the  first  to  classify  discords,  on  arriving  in 
France  found  but  two  men — a  cook  and  a  mason — whose 
voice  and  intelligence  were  equal  to  performing  his  music; 
he  made  a  tenor  of  the  former,  and  transformed  the  latter 
into  a  bass.  At  that  time  Germany  had  no  musician  except- 
ing Sebastian  Bach. — But  you,  monsieur,  though  you  are  so 
young,"  Gambara  added,  in  the  humble  tone  of  a  man  who 
expects  to  find  his  remarks  received  with  scorn  or  ill-nature, 
"must  have  given  much  time  to  the  study  of  these  high  mat- 
ters of  art ;  you  could  not  otherwise  explain  them  so  clearly." 

This  word  made  many  of  the  hearers  smile,  for  they  had 
understood  nothing  of  the  fine  distinctions  drawn  by  Andrea. 
Giardini,  indeed,  convinced  tbat  the  Count  had  been  talking 
mere  rhodomontade,  nudged  him  with  a  laugh  in  his  sleeve,  as 
at  a  good  joke  in  which  he  flattered  himself  that  he  was  a 
partner. 


346  GAMBARA 

'There  is  a  great  deal  that  strikes  me  as  very  true  in  all 
you  have  said,"  Gambara  went  on;  'Taut  be  careful.  Your 
argiiment,  while  reflecting  on  Italian  sensuality,  seems  to  me 
to  lean  towards  German  idealism,  which  is  a  no  less  fatal 
heresy.  If  men  of  imagination  and  good  sense,  like  you, 
desert  one  camp  only  to  join  the  other;  if  they  cannot  keep 
to  the  happy  medium  between  two  forms  of  extravagance,  we 
shall  always  be  exposed  to  the  satire  of  the  sophists,  who  deny 
all  progress,  who  compare  the  genius  of  man  to  this  table-' 
cloth,  which,  being  too  short  to  cover  the  whole  of  Signor 
Giardini's  table,  decks  one  end  at  the  expense  of  the  other." 

Giardini  bounded  in  his  seat  as  if  he  had  been  stung  by  a 
horse-fly,  but  swift  reflection  restored  him  to  his  dignity  as  a 
host;  he  looked  up  to  heaven  and  again  nudged  the  Count, 
who  was  beginning  to  think  the  cook  more  crazy  than  Gam- 
bara. 

This  serious  and  pious  way  of  speaking  of  art  interested  the 
Milanese  extremely.  Seated  between  these  two  distracted 
brains,  one  so  noble  and  the  other  so  common,  and  making 
game  of  each  other  to  the  great  entertainment  of  the  crowd, 
there  was  a  moment  when  the  Count  found  himself  wavering 
between  the  sublime  and  its  parody,  the  farcical  extremes 
of  human  life.  Ignoring  the  chain  of  incredible  events 
which  had  brought  them  to  this  smoky  den,  he  believed  him- 
self to  be  the  plaything  of  some  strange  hallucination,  and 
thought  of  Gambara  and  Giardini  as  two  abstractions. 

Meanwhile,  after  a  last  piece  of  buffoonery  from  the  deaf 
conductor  in  reply  to  Gambara,  the  company  had  broken  up 
laughing  loudly.  Giardini  went  off  to  make  coffee,  which  he 
begged  the  select  few  to  acce})t.  and  his  wife  cleared  the 
table.  The  Count,  sitting  near  the  stove  between  Marianna 
and  Gambara,  was  in  the  very  position  which  the  mad  mu- 
sician thought  most  desirable,  with  sensuousness  on  one  side 
and  idealism  on  the  other.  Gambara  finding  himself  for  the 
first  time  in  the  society  of  a  man  who  did  not  laugh  at  him 
to  his  face,  soon  diverged  from  generalities  to  talk  of  himself, 
of  his  life,  his  work,  and  the  musical  regeneration  of  which  he 
believed  himself  to  be  the  Messiah. 


GAMBARA  847 

"Listen,"  said  he,  "you  who  so  far  have  not  insulted  me. 
I  will  tell  you  the  story  of  my  life ;  not  to  make  a  boast  of  my 
perseverance,  which  is  no  virtue  of  mine,  but  to  the  greater 
glory  of  Him  who  has  given  me  His  strength.  You  seem 
kind  and  pious ;  if  you  do  not  believe  in  me  at  least  you  will 
pity  me.    Pity  is  human ;  faith  comes  from  God." 

Andrea  turned  and  drew  back  under  his  chair  the  foot  thJit 
had  been  seeking  that  of  the  fair  Marianna,  fixing  his  eyes 
on  her  while  listening  to  Gambara. 

"I  was  born  at  Cremona,  the  son  of  an  instrument  maker, 
a  fairly  good  performer  and  an  even  better  composer,"  the 
musician  began.  *'Thus  at  an  early  age  I  had  mastered  the 
laws  of  musical  construction  in  its  twofold  aspects,  the  ma- 
terial and  the  spiritual ;  and  as  an  inquisitive  child  I  observed 
many  things  which  subsequently  recurred  to  the  mind  of  the 
full-grown  man. 

"The  French  turned  us  out  of  our  own  home — my  father 
and  me,  "We  were  ruined  by  the  war.  Thus,  at  the  age  of 
ten  I  entered  on  the  wandering  life  to  which  most  men  have 
been  condemned  whose  brains  were  busy  with  innovations, 
whether  in  art,  science,  or  politics.  Fate,  or  the  instincts  of 
their  mind  which  cannot  fit  into  the  compartments  Avhere 
the  trading  class  sit,  providentially  guides  them  to  the  spots 
where  they  may  find  teaching.  Led  by  my  passion  for  music 
I  wandered  throughout  Italy  from  theatre  to  theatre,  living 
on  very  little,  as  men  can  live  there.  Sometimes  I  played  the 
bass  in  an  orchestra,  sometimes  I  was  on  the  boards  in  the 
chorus,  sometimes  under  them  with  the  carpenters.  Thus 
I  learned  every  kind  of  musical  effect,  studying  the  tones  of 
instruments  and  of  the  human  voice,  wherein  they  differed 
and  how  they  harmonized,  listening  to  the  score  and  applying 
the  rules  taught  me  by  my  father. 

"It  was  hungry  work,  in  a  land  where  the  sun  always 
shines,  where  art  is  all  pervading,  but  where  there  is  no  pay 
for  the  artist,  since  Eome  is  but  nominally  the  Sovereign  of 
the  Christian  world.     Sometimes  made  welcome,  sometimes 


348  GAMBARA 

scouted  for  my  poverty,  I  never  lost  courage.  I  heard  a 
voice  within  me  promising  me  fame. 

"Music  seemed  to  me  in  its  infancy,  and  I  think  so  still. 
All  that  is  left  to  us  of  musical  effort  before  the  seventeenth 
century,  proves  to  me  that  early  musicians  knew  melody  only ; 
they  were  ignorant  of  harmony  and  its  immense  resources. 
M"usic  is  at  once  a  science  and  an  art.  It  is  rooted  in  physics 
and  mathematics,  hence  it  is  a  science;  inspiration  makes  it 
an  art,  unconsciously  utilizing  the  theorems  of  science.  It 
is  founded  in  physics  by  the  very  nature  of  the  matter  it 
works  on.  Sound  is  air  in  motion.  The  air  is  formed  of 
constituents  which,  in  us,  no  doubt,  meet  with  analogous 
elements  that  respond  to  them,  sympathize,  and  magnify 
them  by  the  power  of  the  mind.  Thus  the  air  must  include 
a  vast  variety  of  molecules  of  various  degrees  of  elasticity, 
and  capable  of  vibrating  in  as  many  different  periods  as  there 
are  tones  from  all  kinds  of  sonorous  bodies ;  and  these  mole-> 
cules,  set  in  motion  by  the  musician  and  falling  on  our  ear, 
answer  to  our  ideas,  according  to  each  man's  temperament.  I 
myself  believe  that  sound  is  identical  in  its  nature  with  light. 
Sound  is  light,  perceived  under  another  form;  each  acts 
through  vibrations  to  which  man  is  sensitive  and  which  he 
transforms,  in  the  nervous  centres,  into  ideas. 

"Music,  like  painting,  makes  use  of  materials  which  have 
the  property  of  liberating  this  or  that  property  from  the 
surrounding  medium  and  so  suggesting  an  image.  The  in- 
struments in  music  perform  this  part,  as  color  does  in  paint- 
ing. And  whereas  each  sound  produced  by  a  sonorous  body 
is  invariably  allied  with  its  major  third  and  fifth,  whereas  it 
acts  on  grains  of  fine  sand  lying  on  stretched  parchment  so  as 
to  distribute  them  in  geometrical  figures  that  are  always  the 
same,  according  to  the  pitch, — quite  regular  when  the  com- 
bination is  a  true  chord,  and  indefinite  when  the  sounds  are 
dissonant, — I  say  that  music  is  an  art  conceived  in  the  very 
bowels  of  nature. 

"Music  is  subject  to  physical  and  mathematical  laws. 
Physical  laws  are  but  little  known,  mathematics  are  well  un- 


GAMBARA  349 

derstood;  and  it  is  since  their  relations  have  been  studied, 
that  the  harmony  has  been  created  to  which  we  owe  the  works 
of  Haydn,  Mozart,  Beethoven,  and  Kossini,  grand  geniuses, 
whose  music  is  undoubtedly  nearer  to  perfection  than  that 
of  their  precursors,  though  their  genius,  too,  is  unquestion- 
able. The  old  masters  could  sing,  but  they  had  not  art  and 
science  at  their  command, — a  noble  alliance  which  enables 
us  to  merge  into  one  the  finest  melody  and  the  power  of  har- 
mony. 

"Now,  if  a  knowledge  of  mathematical  laws  gave  us  these 
four  great  musicians,  what  may  we  not  attain  to  if  we  can 
discover  the  physical  laws  in  virtue  of  which — grasp  this 
clearly — we  may  collect,  in  larger  or  smaller  quantities,  ac- 
cording to  the  proportions  we  may  require,  an  ethereal  sub- 
stance diffused  in  the  atmosphere  which  is  the  medium  alike 
of  music  and  of  light,  of  the  phenomena  of  vegetation  and  of 
animal  life !  Do  you  follow  me  ?  Those  new  laws  would  arm 
the  composer  with  new  powers  by  supplying  him  with  instru- 
ments superior  to  those  now  in  use,  and  perhaps  with 
a  potency  of  harmony  immense  as  compared  with  that  now 
at  his  command.  If  every  modified  shade  of  sound  answers 
to  a  force,  that  must  be  known  to  enable  us  to  combine  all 
these  forces  in  accordance  with  their  true  laws. 

"Composers  work  with  substances  of  which  they  know 
nothing.  Why  should  a  brass  and  a  wooden  instrument — a 
bassoon  and  horn — have  so  little  identity  of  tone,  when  they 
act  on  the  same  matter,  the  constituent  gases  of  the  air? 
Their  differences  proceed  from  some  displacement  of  those 
constituents,  from  the  way  they  act  on  the  elements  which  are 
their  affinity  and  which  they  return,  modified  by  some  occult 
and  unknown  process.  If  we  knew  what  the  process  was, 
science  and  art  would  both  be  the  gainers.  Whatever  ex- 
tends science  enhances  art. 

"Well,  these  are  the  discoveries  I  have  guessed  and  made. 
Yes,"  said  Gambara,  with  increasing  vehemence,  "hitherto 
men  have  noted  effects  rather  than  causes.  If  they  could  but 
master  the  causes,  music  would  be  the  greatest  of  the  arts. 


350  GAMBABA 

Is  it  not  the  one  which  strikes  deepest  to  the  soul  ?  You  see 
in  painting  no  more  than  it  shows  you;  in  poetry  you  have 
only  what  the  poet  says ;  music  goes  far  beyond  this.  Does  it 
not  form  your  taste,  and  rouse  dormant  memories?  In  a 
concert-room  there  may  be  a  thousand  souls ;  a  strain  is  flung 
out  from  Pasta's  throat,  the  execution  worthily  answering  to 
the  ideas  that  flashed  through  Kossini's  mind  as  he  wrote  the 
air.  That  phrase  of  Kossini's,  transmitted  to  those  attentive 
,  souls,  is  worked  out  in  so  many  different  poems.  To  one  it 
presents  a  woman  long  dreamed  of;  to  another,  some  distant 
shore  where  he  wandered  long  ago.  It  rises  up  before  him 
with  its  drooping  willows,  its  clear  waters,  and  the  hopes  that 
then  played  under  its  leafy  arbors.  One  woman  is  reminded 
of  the  myriad  feelings  that  tortured  her  during  an  hour  of 
jealous}',  while  another  thinks  of  the  unsatisfied  cravings 
of  her  heart,  and  paints  in  the  glowing  hues  of  a  dream  an 
ideal  lover,  to  whom  she  abandons  herself  with  the  rapture 
of  the  woman  in  the  Eoman  mosaic  who  embraces  a  chimera ; 
yet  a  third  is  thinking  that  this  very  evening  some  hoped- 
for  joy  is  to  be  hers,  and  rushes  by  anticipation  into  the  tide 
of  happiness,  its  dashing  waves  breaking  against  her  burning 
bosom.  Music  alone  has  this  power  of  throwing  us  back  on 
ourselves;  the  other  arts  give  us  infinite  pleasure.  But  I 
am  digressing. 

"These  were  my  first  ideas,  vague  indeed;  for  an  inventor 
at  the  beginning  only  catches  glimpses  of  the  dawn,  as  it  were. 
So  I  kept  these  glorious  ideas  at  the  bottom  of  my  knapsack, 
and  they  gave  me  spirit  to  eat  the  dry  crust  I  often  dipped  in 
the  water  of  a  spring.  I  worked,  I  composed  airs,  and,  after 
playing  them  on  any  instrument  that  came  to  hand,  I  went  off 
again  on  foot  across  Italy.  Finally,  at  the  age  of  two-and- 
twenty,  I  settled  in  Venice,  where  for  the  first  time  I  en- 
joyed rest  and  found  myself  in  a  decent  position.  I  there 
made  the  acquaintance  of  a  Venetian  nobleman  who  liked  my 
ideas,  who  encouraged  me  in  my  investigations,  and  who  got 
me  employment  at  the  Venice  theatre. 

"Living  was  cheap,  lodging  inexpensive.    I  had  a  room  in 


GAMBABA  351 

that  Capello  palace  from  which  the  famous  Bianca  came 
forth  one  evening  to  become  a  Grand  Duchess  of  Tuscany. 
And  I  would  dream  that  my  unrecognized  fame  would  also 
emerge  from  thence  one  day  to  be  crowned. 

''I  spent  my  evenings  at  the  theatre  and  my  days  in  work. 
Then  came  disaster.  The  performance  of  an  opera  in  which 
I  had  experimented,  trying  my  music,  was  a  failure.  No  one 
understood  my  score  for  the  Martiri.  Set  Beethoven  before 
the  Italians  and  they  are  out  of  their  depth.  No  one  had 
patience  enough  to  wait  for  the  effect  to  be  produced  by  the 
different  motives  given  out  by  each  instrument,  which  were 
all  at  last  to  combine  in  a  grand  ensemble. 

"I  had  built  some  hopes  on  the  success  of  the  Martiri,  for 
we  votaries  of  the  blue  divinity  Hope  always  discount  results. 
When  a  man  believes  himself  destined  to  do  great  things,  it 
is  hard  not  to  fancy  them  achieved;  the  bushel  always  has 
some  cracks  through  which  the  light  shines. 

"My  wife's  family  lodged  in  the  same  house,  and  the  hope 
of  winning  Marianna,  who  often  smiled  at  me  from  her  win- 
dow, had  done  much  to  encourage  my  efforts.  I  now  fell  into 
the  deepest  melancholy  as  I  sounded  the  depths  of  the  gulf 
I  had  dropped  into;  for  I  foresaw  plainly  a  life  of  poverty, 
a  perpetual  struggle  in  which  love  must  die.  Marianna  acted 
as  genius  does;  she  jumped  across  every  obstacle,  both  feet 
at  once.  I  will  not  speak  of  the  little  happiness  which  shed 
its  gilding  on  the  beginning  of  my  misfortunes.  Dismayed 
at  my  failure,  I  decided  that  Italy  was  not  intelligent  enough, 
and  too  much  sunk  in  the  dull  round  of  routine  to  accept  the 
innovations  I  conceived  of ;  so  I  thought  of  going  to  Germany. 

"I  traveled  thither  by  way  of  Hungary,  listening  to  the 
myriad  voices  of  nature,  and  trying  to  reproduce  that  sublime 
harmony  by  the  help  of  instruments  which  I  constructed  or 
altered  for  the  purpose.  These  experiments  involved  me  in 
vast  expenses  which  had  soon  exhausted  my  savings.  And 
yet  those  were  our  golden  days.  In  Germany  I  was  appre- 
ciated. There  has  been  nothing  in  my  life  more  glorious  than 
that  time.    I  can  think  of  nothing  to  compare  with  the  vehe- 


352  GAMBARA 

ment  joys  I  found  by  the  side  of  Marianna,  whose  beauty  was 
then  of  really  heavenly  radiance  and  splendor.  In  short,  I 
was  happy. 

"During  that  period  of  weakness  I  more  than  once  expressed 
my  passion  in  the  language  of  earthly  harmony.  I  even  wrote 
some  of  those  airs,  just  like  geometrical  patterns,  which  are 
so  much  admired  in  the  world  of  fashion  that  you  move  in. 
But  as  soon  as  I  made  a  little  way  I  met  with  insuperable 
obstacles  raised  by  my  rivals,  all  hypercritical  or  unapprecia- 
tive. 

"I  had  heard  of  France  as  being  a  country  where  novelties 
were  favorably  received,  and  I  wanted  to  get  there;  my  wife 
had  a  little  money  and  we  came  to  Paris.  Till  then  no  one 
had  actually  laughed  in  my  face ;  but  in  this  dreadful  city  I 
had  to  endure  that  new  form  of  torture,  to  which  abject  pov- 
erty ere  long  added  its  bitter  sufferings.  Eeduced  to  lodging 
in  this  mephitic  quarter,  for  many  months  we  have  lived  ex- 
clusively on  Marianna's  sewing,  she  having  found  employ- 
ment for  her  needle  in  working  for  the  unhappy  prostitutes 
who  make  this  street  their  hunting  ground.  Marianna  as- 
sures me  that  among  those  poor  creatures  she  has  met  with 
such  consideration  and  generosity  as  I,  for  my  part,  ascribe 
to  the  ascendency  of  virtue  so  pure  that  even  vice  is  com- 
pelled to  respect  it." 

"Hope  on,"  said  Andrea.  "Perhaps  you  have  reached  the 
end  of  your  trials.  And  while  waiting  for  the  time  when  my 
endeavor,  seconding  yours,  shall  set  your  labors  in  a  true 
light,  allow  me,  as  a  fellow-countryman  and  an  artist  like 
yourself,  to  offer  you  some  little  advance  on  the  undoubted 
success  of  your  score." 

"All  that  has  to  do  with  matters  of  material  existence  I 
leave  to  my  wife,"  replied  Gambara.  "She  will  decide  as  to 
what  we  may  accept  without  a  blush  from  so  thorough  a 
gentleman  as  you  seem  to  be.  For  my  part, — and  it  is  long 
since  T  have  allowed  myself  to  indulge  such  full  confidences, 
— I  must  now  ask  you  to  allow  me  to  leave  you.  I  see  a 
melody  beckoning  to  me,  dancing  and  floating  before  me, 


GAMBARA  353 

bare  and  quivering,  like  a  girl  entreating  her  lover  for  her 
clothes  which  he  has  hidden.  Good-night.  I  must  go  and 
dress  my  mistress.     My  wife  I  leave  with  you." 

He  hurried  away,  as  a  man  who  blames  himself  for  the  loss 
of  valuable  time;  and  Marianna,  somewhat  embarrassed, 
prepared  to  follow  him. 

Andrea  dared  not  detain  her. 

Giardini  came  to  the  rescue. 

"But  you  heard,  signora,"  said  he.  "Your  husband  has 
left  you  to  settle  some  little  matters  with  the  Signor  Conte." 

Marianna  sat  down  again,  but  without  raising  her  eyes  to 
Andrea,  who  hesitated  before  speaking. 

"And  will  not  Signor  Gambara's  confidence  entitle  me  to 
his  wife's?"  he  said  in  agitated  tones.  "Can  the  fair  Mari- 
anna refuse  to  tell  me  the  story  of  her  life  ?" 

"My  life !"  said  Marianna.  "It  is  the  life  of  the  ivy.  If 
you  wish  to  know  the  story  of  my  heart,  you  must  suppose  me 
equally  destitute  of  pride  and  of  modesty  if  you  can  ask  me 
to  tell  it  after  what  you  have  just  heard." 

"Of  whom,  then,  can  I  ask  it  ?"  cried  the  Count,  in  whom 
passion  was  blinding  his  wits. 

"Of  yourself,"  replied  Marianna.  "Either  you  understand 
me  by  this  time,  or  you  never  will.    Try  to  ask  yourself." 

"I  will,  but  you  must  listen.  And  this  hand,  which  I  am 
holding,  is  to  lie  in  mine  as  long  as  my  narrative  is  truthful." 

"I  am  listening,"  said  Marianna. 

"A  woman's  life  begins  with  her  first  passion,"  said  An- 
drea. "And  my  dear  Marianna  began  to  live  only  on  the  day 
when  she  first  saw  Paolo  Gambara.  She  needed  some  deep 
passion  to  feed  upon,  and,  above  all,  some  interesting  weak- 
ness to  shelter  and  uphold.  The  beautiful  woman's  nature 
with  which  she  is  endowed  is  perhaps  not  so  truly  passion  as 
maternal  love. 

"You  sigh,  Marianna?  I  have  touched  one  of  the  aching 
wounds  in  your  heart.  It  was  a  noble  part  for  you  to  play, 
so  young  as  you  were, — that  of  protectress  to  a  noble  but 
wandering  intellect.    You  said  to  yourself :  'Paolo  will  be  my 


354  GAMBABA 

genius ;  I  shall  be  his  common  sense ;  between  ns  we  shall  be 
that  almost  divine  being  called  an  angel, — the  sublime 
creature  that  enjoys  and  understands,  reason  never  stifling 
love.' 

"And  then,  in  the  first  impetus  of  youth,  you  heard  the 
thousand  voices  of  nature  which  the  poet  longed  to  reproduce. 
Enthusiasm  clutched  you  when  Paolo  spread  before  you  the 
treasures  of  poetry,  while  seeking  to  embody  them  in  the 
sublime  but  restricted  language  of  music;  you  admired  him 
when  delirious  rapture  carried  him  up  and  away  from  you, 
for  you  liked  to  believe  that  all  this  devious  energy  would  at 
last  come  down  and  alight  as  love.  But  you  knew  not  the 
tyrannous  and  jealous  despotism  of  the  ideal  over  the  minds 
that  fall  in  love  with  it.  Gambara,  before  meeting  you,  had 
given  himself  over  to  the  haughty  and  overbearing  mistress, 
with  whom  you  have  struggled  for  him  to  this  day. 

"Once,  for  an  instant,  you  had  a  vision  of  happiness. 
Paolo,  tumbling  from  the  lofty  sphere  where  his  spirit  was 
constantly  soaring,  was  amazed  to  find  reality  so  sweet;  you 
fancied  that  his  madness  would  be  lulled  in  the  arms  of  love. 
But  before  long  Music  again  clutched  her  prey.  The  daz- 
zling mirage  which  had  cheated  you  into  the  joys  of  reciprocal 
love  made  the  lonely  path  on  which  you  had  started  look  more 
desolate  and  barren. 

"In  the  tale  your  husband  has  just  told  me,  I  could  read, 
as  plainly  as  in  the  contrast  between  your  looks  and  his,  all  the 
painful  secrets  of  that  ill-assorted  union,  in  which  you  have 
accepted  the  sufferer's  part.  Though  your  conduct  has  been 
unfailingly  heroical,  though  your  firmness  has  never  once 
given  way  in  the  exercise  of  your  painful  duties,  perhaps, 
in  the  silence  of  lonely  nights,  the  heart  that  at  this  moment 
is  beating  so  wildly  in  your  breast,  may,  from  time  to  time, 
have  rebelled.  Your  husband's  superiority  was  in  itself  your 
worst  torment.  If  he  had  been  less  noble,  less  single-minded,' 
you  might  have  deserted  him;  but  his  virtues  upheld  yours; 
you  wondered,  perhaps,  whether  his  heroism  or  your  own 
would  be  the  first  to  give  way. 


QAMBABA  355 

'Ton  clung  to  your  really  magnanimous  task  as  Paolo 
clung  to  his  chimera.  If  you  had  had  nothing  but  a  devotion 
to  duty  to  guide  and  sustain  you,  triumph  might  have  seemed 
easier;  you  would  only  have  had  to  crush  your  heart,  and 
transfer  your  life  into  the  world  of  abstractions;  religion 
would  have  absorbed  all  else,  and  you  would  have  lived  for 
an  idea,  like  those  saintly  women  who  kill  all  the  instincts  of 
nature  at  the  foot  of  the  altar.  But  the  all-pervading  charm: 
of  Paolo,  the  loftiness  of  his  mind,  his  rare  and  touching^ 
proofs  of  tenderness,  constantly  drag  you  down  from  that  ideal 
realm  where  virtue  would  fain  maintain  you ;  they  perennially 
revive  in  you  the  energies  you  have  exhausted  in  contending 
with  the  phantom  of  love.  You  never  suspected  this !  The 
faintest  glimmer  of  hope  led  you  on  in  pursuit  of  the  sweet 
vision. 

"At  last  the  disappointments  of  many  years  have  under- 
mined your  patience, — an  angel  would  have  lost  it  long 
since, — and  now  the  apparition  so  long  pursued  is  no  more 
than  a  shade  without  substance.  Madness  that  is  so  nearly 
allied  to  genius  can  know  no  cure  in  this  world.  When  this 
thought  first  struck  you,  you  looked  back  on  your  past  youth, 
sacrificed,  if  not  wasted;  you  then  bitterly  discerned  the 
blunder  of  nature  that  had  given  you  a  father  when  you 
looked  for  a  husband.  You  asked  yourself  whether  you  had 
not  gone  beyond  the  duty  of  a  wife  in  keeping  yourself 
wholly  for  a  man  who  was  bound  up  in  his  science.  Mari- 
anna,  leave  your  hand  in  mine ;  all  I  have  said  is  true.  And 
you  looked  about  you — but  now  you  were  in  Paris,  not  in 
Italy,  where  men  know  how  to  love " 

"Oh !  Let  me  finish  the  tale,"  cried  Marianna.  "I  would 
rather  say  things  myself.  I  will  be  honest ;  I  feel  that  I  am 
speaking  to  my  truest  friend.  Yes,  I  was  in  Paris  when  all 
you  have  expressed  so  clearly  took  place  in  my  mind;  but 
when  I  saw  you  I  was  saved,  for  I  had  never  met  with  the 
love  I  had  dreamed  of  from  my  childhood.  My  poor  dress 
and  my  dwelling-place  had  hidden  me  from  the  eyes  of 
men  of  your  class.     A  few  young  men,  whose  position  did 


356  GAMBARA 

not  allow  of  their  insulting  me,  were  all  the  more  intolerable 
for  the  levity  with  which  they  treated  me.  Some  made  game 
of  my  husband,  as  if  he  were  merely  a  ridiculous  old  man; 
others  basely  tried  to  win  his  good  graces  to  betray  me;  one 
and  all  talked  of  getting  me  away  from  him,  and  none  under- 
stood the  devotion  I  feel  for  a  soul  that  is  so  far  away  from 
us  only  because  it  is  so  near  heaven,  for  that  friend,  that 
brother,  whose  handmaid  I  will  always  be. 

"You  alone  understood,  did  you  not  ?  the  tie  that  binds  me 
to  him.  Tell  me  that  you  feel  a  sincere  and  disinterested  re- 
gard for  my  Paolo " 

"I  gladly  accept  your  praises,"  Andrea  interrupted;  **but 
go  no  further;  do  not  compel  me  to  contradict  you.  I  love 
you,  Marianna,  as  we  love  in  the  beautiful  country  where  we 
both  were  born.  I  love  you  with  all  my  soul  and  with  all  my 
strength;  but  before  offering  you  that  love,  I  will  be  worthy 
of  yours.  I  will  make  a  last  attempt  to  give  back  to  you  the 
man  you  have  loved  so  long  and  will  love  forever.  Till  suc- 
cess or  defeat  is  certain,  accept  without  any  shame  the  modest 
ease  I  can  give  you  both.  We  will  go  to-morrow  and  choose 
a  place  where  he  may  live. 

"Have  you  such  regard  for  me  as  will  allow  you  to  make 
me  the  partner  in  your  guardianship?" 

Marianna,  surprised  at  such  magnanimity,  held  out  her 
hand  to  the  Count,  who  went  away,  trying  to  evade  the  civili- 
ties of  Giardini  and  his  wife. 

On  the  following  day  Giardini  took  the  Count  up  to  the 
room  where  the  Gambaras  lodged.  Though  Marianna  fully 
knew  her  lover's  noble  soul, — -for  there  are  natures  which 
quickly  enter  into  each  other's  spirit, — Marianna  was  too 
good  a  housewife  not  to  betray  her  annoyance  at  receiving 
such  a  fine  gentleman  in  so  humble  a  room.  Everything  was 
exquisitely  clean.  She  had  spent  the  morning  in  dusting  her 
motley  furniture,  the  handiwork  of  Signor  Giardini,  who  had 
put  it  together,  at  odd  moments  of  leisure,  out  of  the  frag- 
ments of  the  instruments  rejected  by  Gambara. 


GAMBARA  S57 

Andrea  had  never  seen  an3rthing  quite  so  crazy.  To  keep  a 
decent  countenance  he  turned  away  from  a  grotesque  bed, 
contrived  by  the  ingenious  cook  in  the  case  of  an  old  harpsi- 
chord, and  looked  at  Marianna's  narrow  couch,  of  which  the 
single  mattress  was  covered  with  a  white  muslin  counterpane, 
a  circumstance  that  gave  rise  in  his  mind  to  some  sad  but 
sweet  thoughts. 

He  wished  to  speak  of  his  plans  and  of  his  morning's  work ; 
but  Gambara,  in  his  enthusiasm,  believing  that  he  had  at  last 
met  with  a  willing  listener,  took  possession  of  him,  and  com- 
pelled him  to  listen  to  the  opera  he  had  written  for  Paris. 

"In  the  first  place,  monsieur,"  said  the  composer,  "allow 
me  to  explain  the  subject  in  a  few  words.  Here,  the  hearers 
receiving  a  musical  impression  do  not  work  it  out  in  them- 
selves, as  religion  bids  us  work  out  the  texts  of  Scripture  in 
prayer.  Hence  it  is  very  difficult  to  make  them  understand 
that  there  is  in  nature  an  eternal  melody,  exquisitely  sweet,  a 
perfect  harmony,  disturbed  only  by  revolutions  independent 
of  the  divine  will,  as  passions  are  uncontrolled  by  the  will  of 
men. 

"I,  therefore,  had  to  seek  a  vast  framework  in  which  effect 
and  cause  might  both  be  included;  for  the  aim  of  my  music 
is  to  give  a  picture  of  the  life  of  nations  from  the  loftiest 
point  of  view.  My  opera,  for  which  I  myself  wrote  the 
libretto,  for  a  poet  would  never  have  fully  developed  the 
subject,  is  the  life  of  Mahomet, — a  figure  in  whom  the  magic 
of  Sabaeanism  combined  with  the  Oriental  poetry  of  the  He- 
brew Scriptures  to  result  in  one  of  the  greatest  human  epics, 
the  Arab  dominion.  Mahomet  certainly  derived  from  the 
Hebrews  the  idea  of  a  despotic  government,  and  from  the 
religion  of  the  shepherd  tribes  or  Sabaeans  the  spirit  of  ex- 
pansion which  created  the  splendid  empire  of  the  Khalifs. 
His  destiny  was  stamped  on  him  in  his  birth,  for  his  father 
was  a  heathen  and  his  mother  a  Jewess.  Ah !  my  dear  Count, 
to  be  a  great  musician  a  man  must  be  very  learned.  Without 
knowledge  he  can  get  no  local  color  and  put  no  ideas  into  his 
music.  The  composer  who  sings  for  singing's  sake  is  an  arti- 
san, not  an  artist. 


858  GAMBARA 

"This  magnificent  opera  is  the  continuation  of  the  great 
work  I  projected.  My  first  opera  was  called  The  Martyrs, 
and  I  intend  to  write  a  third  on  Jerusalem  delivered.  You 
perceive  the  beauty  of  this  trilogy  and  what  a  variety  of 
motives  it  offers, — the  Martyrs,  Mahomet,  the  Deliverance  of 
Jerusalem :  the  God  of  the  West,  the  God  of  the  Bast,  and  the 
struggle  of  their  worshipers  over  a  tomb.  But  we  will  not 
dwell  on  my  fame,  now  for  ever  lost. 

"This  is  the  argument  of  my  opera."  He  paused.  "The 
first  act,"  he  went  on,  "shows  Mahomet  as  a  porter  to  Kadijah, 
a  rich  widow  with  whom  his  uncle  placed  him.  He  is  in  love 
and  ambitious.  Driven  from  Mecca,  he  escapes  to  Medina, 
and  dates  his  era  from  his  flight,  the  Hegira.  In  the  second 
act  he  is  a  Prophet,  founding  a  militant  religion.  In  the 
third,  disgusted  with  all  things,  having  exhausted  life,  Ma- 
homet conceals  the  manner  of  his  death  in  the  hope  of  being 
regarded  as  a  god, — last  effort  of  human  pride. 

"Now  you  shall  judge  of  my  way  of  expressing  in  sound 
a  great  idea,  for  which  poetry  could  find  no  adequate  expres- 
sion in  words." 

Gambara  sat  down  to  the  piano  with  an  absorbed  gaze,  and 
his  wife  brought  him  the  mass  of  papers  forming  his  score; 
but  he  did  not  open  them. 

"The  whole  opera,"  said  he,  "is  founded  on  a  bass,  as  on  a 
fruitful  soil.  Mahomet  was  to  have  a  majestic  bass  voice, 
and  his  wife  necessarily  had  a  contralto.  Kadijah  was  quite 
old — ^twenty!  Attention!  This  is  the  overture.  It  begins 
with  an  andante  in  C  major,  triple  time.  Do  you  hear  the 
sadness  of  the  ambitious  man  who  is  not  satisfied  with  love? 
Then,  through  his  lamentation,  by  a  transition  to  the  key  of 
E  flat,  allegro,  common  time,  we  hear  the  cries  of  the  epileptic 
lover,  his  fury  and  certain  warlike  phrases,  for  the  mighty, 
scimitar  of  the  Khalifs  begins  to  gleam  before  him.  The 
charms  of  the  one  and  only  woman  give  him  the  impulse 
to  multiplied  loves  which  strikes  us  in  Don  Giovanni.  Now, 
as  you  hear  these  themes,  do  you  not  catch  a  glimpse  of 
Mahomet's  Paradise? 


GAMBARA  359 

"And  next  we  have  a  cantahile  (A  flat  major,  six-eight 
time),  that  might  expand  the  soul  that  is  least  susceptible  to 
music.  Kadi j  ah  has  understood  Mahomet !  Then  Kadi j  ah 
announces  to  the  populace  the  Prophet's  interviews  with  the 
Angel  Gabriel  {maestoso  sostenuto  in  F  major).  The  mag- 
istrates and  priests,  power  and  religion,  feeling  themselves 
attacked  by  the  innovator,  as  Christ  and  Socrates  also  at- 
tacked effete  or  worn-out  powers  and  religions,  persecute 
Mahomet  and  drive  him  out  of  Mecca  {stretto  in  C  major). 
Then  comes  my  beautiful  dominant  (G  major,  common 
time).  Arabia  now  harkens  to  the  Prophet;  horsemen  arrive 
(G  major,  E  flat,  B  flat,  G  minor,  and  still  common  time). 
The  mass  of  men  gathers  like  an  avalanche ;  the  false  Prophet 
has  begun  on  a  tribe  the  work  he  will  achieve  over  a  world 
(G  major), 

"He  promises  the  Arabs  universal  dominion,  and  they  be- 
lieve him  because  he  is  inspired.  The  crescendo  beings  (still 
in  the  dominant).  Here  come  some  flourishes  (in  C  major) 
from  the  brass,  founded  on  the  harmony,  but  strongly  marked, 
and  asserting  themselves  as  an  expression  of  the  first 
triumphs.  Medina  has  gone  over  to  the  Prophet,  and  the 
whole  army  marches  on  Mecca  (an  explosion  of  sound  in  C 
major).  The  whole  power  of  the  orchestra  is  worked  up  like 
a  conflagration ;  every  instrument  is  employed ;  it  is  a  torrent 
of  harmony. 

"Suddenly  the  tutti  is  interrupted  by  a  flowing  air  (on 
the  minor  third).  You  hear  the  last  strain  of  devoted  love. 
The  woman  who  had  upheld  the  great  man  dies  concealing 
her  despair,  dies  at  the  moment  of  triumph  for  him  in  whom 
love  has  become  too  overbearing  to  be  content  with  one  woman ; 
and  she  worships  him  enough  to  sacrifice  herself  to  the 
greatness  of  the  man  who  is  killing  her.  What  a  blaze  of 
love! 

"Then  the  Desert  rises  to  overrun  the  world  (back  to  C 
major) .  The  whole  strength  of  the  orchestra  comes  in  again, 
collected  in  a  tremendous  quintet  grounded  on  the  funda- 
mental bass, — and  he  is  dying!     Mahomet  is  world-weary; 


360  GAMBARA 

he  has  exhausted  everything.  Now  he  craves  to  die  a  god. 
Arabia,  in  fact,  worships  and  prays  to  him,  and  we  return 
to  the  first  melancholy  strain  (C  minor)  to  which  the  curtain 
rose. 

"N'ow,  do  you  not  discern,"  said  Gambara,  ceasing  to  play, 
and  turning  to  the  Count,  "in  this  picturesque  and  vivid 
music — abrupt,  grotesque,  or  melancholy,  but  always  grand 
— the  complete  expression  of  the  life  of  an  epileptic,  mad 
for  enjoyment,  unable  to  read  or  write,  using  all  his  defects 
as  stepping-stones,  turning  every  blunder  and  disaster  into  a 
triumph  ?  Did  not  you  feel  a  sense  of  his  fascination  exerted 
over  a  greedy  and  lustful  race,  in  this  overture,  which  is  an 
epitome  of  the  opera  ?" 

At  first  calm  and  stern,  the  maestro's  face,  in  which  Andrea 
had  been  trying  to  read  the  ideas  he  was  uttering  in  inspired 
tones,  though  the  chaotic  flood  of  notes  afforded  no  clue  to 
them,  had  by  degrees  glowed  with  fire  and  assumed  an  im- 
passioned force  that  infected  Marianna  and  the  cook. 
Marianna,  too,  deeply  affected  by  certain  passages  in  which 
she  recognized  a  picture  of  her  own  position,  could  not  con- 
ceal the  expression  of  her  eyes  from  Andrea. 

Gambara  wiped  his  brow,  and  shot  a  glance  at  the  ceiling 
of  such  fierce  energy  that  he  seemed  to  pierce  it  and  soar  to 
the  very  skies. 

"You  have  seen  the  vestibule,"  said  he ;  "we  will  now  enter 
the  palace.     The  opera  begins: — 

"Act  I.  Mahomet,  alone  on  the  stage,  begins  with  an  air 
(F  natural,  common  time),  interrupted  by  a  chorus  of  camel- 
drivers  gathered  round  a  well  at  the  back  of  the  stage  (they 
sing  in  contrary  time — twelve-eight).  What  majestic  woe! 
It  will  appeal  to  the  most  frivolous  women,  piercing  to  their 
inmost  nerves  if  they  have  no  heart.  Is  not  this  the  very  ex- 
pression of  crushed  genius?" 

To  Andrea's  great  astonishment, — for  Marianna  was  ac- 
customed to  it, — Gambara  contracted  his  larynx  to  such  a 
pitch  that  the  only  sound  was  a  stifled  cry  not  unlike  the  bark 
of  a  watch-dog  that  has  lost  its  voice.  A  slight  foam  came  to 
the  composer's  lips  and  made  Andrea  shudder. 


GAMBARA  861 

'Tlis  wife  appears  (A  minor).  Such  a  magnificent  duet! 
In  this  number  I  have  shown  that  Mahomet  has  the  will  and 
his  wife  the  brains.  Kadi j  ah  announces  that  she  is  about 
to  devote  herself  to  an  enterprise  that  will  rob  her  of  her 
young  husband's  love.  Mahomet  means  to  conquer  the  world ; 
this  his  wife  has  guessed,  and  she  supports  him  by  persuading 
the  people  of  Mecca  that  her  husband's  attacks  of  epilepsy  are 
the  effect  of  his  intercourse  with  the  angels  (chorus  of  the 
first  followers  of  Mahomet,  who  come  to  promise  him  their 
aid,  C  sharp  minor,  sotto  voce).  Mahomet  goes  off  to  seek 
the  Angel  Gabriel  (recitative  in  F  major).  His  wife  en- 
courages the  disciples  (aria,  interrupted  by  the  chorus; 
gusts  of  chanting  support  Kadijah's  broad  and  majestic  air, 
A  major). 

"Abdallah,  the  father  of  Ayesha, — ^the  only  maiden  Ma- 
homet had  found  really  innocent,  wherefore  he  changed  the 
name  of  Abdallah  to  Abubekir  (the  father  of  the  virgin), — 
comes  forward  with  Ayesha  and  sings  against  the  chorus, 
in  strains  which  rise  above  the  other  voices  and  supplement 
the  air  sung  by  Kadi  j  ah  in  contrapuntal  treatment.  Omar, 
the  father  of  another  maiden  who  is  to  be  Mahomet's  con- 
cubine, follows  Abubekir's  example;  he  and  his  daughter 
join  in  to  form  a  quintette.  The  girl  Ayesha  is  first  soprano, 
Hafsa  second  soprano;  Abubekir  is  a  bass,  Omar  a  baritone. 

"Mahomet  returns,  inspired.  He  sings  his  first  bravura 
air,  the  beginning  of  the  finale  (E  major),  promising  the 
empire  of  the  world  to  those  who  believe  in  him.  The 
Prophet,  seeing  the  two  damsels,  then,  by  a  gentle  transi- 
tion (from  B  major  to  G  major),  addresses  them  in  amorous 
tones.  Ali,  Mahomet's  cousin,  and  Khaled,  his  greatest  gen- 
eral, both  tenors,  now  arrive  and  announce  the  persecution; 
the  magistrates,  the  military,  and  the  authorities  have  all 
proscribed  the  Prophet  (recitative).  Mahomet  declares  in 
an  invocation  (in  C)  that  the  Angel  Gabriel  is  on  his  side, 
and  points  to  a  pigeon  that  is  seen  flying  away.  The  chorus 
of  believers  responds  in  accents  of  devotion  (on  a  modulation 
to  B  major).     The  soldiers,  magistrates,  and  officials  then 


862  GAMBAKA 

come  on  (tempo  di  mar  da,  common  time,  B  major).  A 
chorus  in  two  divisions  {streito  in  E  major),  Mahomet 
yields  to  the  storm  (in  a  descending  phrase  of  diminished 
eevenths)  and  makes  his  escape.  The  fierce  and  gloomy  tone 
of  this  finale  is  relieved  by  the  phrases  given  to  the  three  wo- 
men who  foretell  Mahomet's  triumph,  and  these  motives  are 
further  developed  in  the  third  act  in  the  scene  where  Ma- 
homet is  enjoying  his  splendor." 

1  The  tears  rose  to  Gambara's  eyes,  and  it  was  only  upon  con- 
trolling his  emotion  that  he  went  on. 

"Act  II.  The  religion  is  now  established.  The  Arabs  are 
guarding  the  Prophet's  tent  while  he  speaks  with  God  (chorus 
in  A  minor).  Mahomet  appears  (a  prayer  in  F).  What  a 
majestic  and  noble  strain  is  this  that  forms  the  bass  of  the 
voices,  in  which  I  have  perhaps  enlarged  the  borders  of 
melody.  It  was  needful  to  express  the  wonderful  energy  of 
this  great  human  movement  which  created  an  architecture, 
a  music,  a  poetry  of  its  own,  a  costume  and  manners.  As 
you  listen,  you  are  walking  under  the  arcades  of  the  Gen- 
eralife,  the  carved  vaults  of  the  Alhambra.  The  runs  and 
trills  depict  that  delicate  mauresque  decoration,  and  the 
gallant  and  valorous  religion  which  was  destined  to  wage 
war  against  the  gallant  and  valorous  chivalry  of  Christen- 
dom. A  few  brass  instruments  awake  in  the  orchestra,  an- 
nouncing the  Prophet's  first  triumph  (in  a  broken  cadenza). 
The  Arabs  adore  the  Prophet  (E  flat  major),  and  Khaled, 
Amru,  and  Ali  arrive  (tempo  di  marcia).  The  armies  of 
the  faithful  have  taken  many  towns  and  subjugated  the  three 
Arabias.  Such  a  grand  recitative ! — Mahomet  rewards  his 
generals  by  presenting  them  with  maidens. 

"And  here,"  said  Gambara,  sadly,  "there  is  one  of  those 
wretched  ballets,  which  interrupt  the  thread  of  the  finest 
musical  tragedies !  But  Mahomet  elevates  it  once  more  by 
'his  great  prophetic  scene,  which  poor  Monsieur  Voltaire  be- 
gins with  these  words : 

"Arabia's  time  at  last  haa  come! 


GAMBARA  S63 

"He  is  interrupted  by  a,  chorus  of  triumphant  Arabs 
(twelve-eight  time,  accelerando).  The  tribes  arrive  in 
crowds ;  the  horns  and  brass  reappear  in  the  orchestra.  Gen- 
eral rejoicings  ensue,  all  the  voices  joining  in  by  degrees,  and 
Mahomet  announces  polygamy.  In  the  midst  of  all  this 
triumph,  the  woman  who  has  been  of  such  faithful  service  to 
Mahomet  sings  a  magnificent  air  (in  B  major).  'And  I,' 
Bays  she,  'am  I  no  longer  loved?'  'We  must  part.  Thou  art 
"but  a  woman,  and  I  am  a  Prophet ;  I  may  still  have  slaves  but 
no  equal.'  Just  listen  to  this  duet  (Gr  sharp  minor).  What 
anguish !  The  woman  understands  the  greatness  her  hands 
have  built  up;  she  loves  Mahomet  well  enough  to  sacrifice 
herself  to  his  glory;  she  worships  him  as  a  god,  without 
criticising  him, — without  murmuring.  Poor  woman !  His 
first  dupe  and  his  first  victim ! 

"What  a  subject  for  the  finale  (in  B  major)  is  her  grief, 
brought  out  in  such  sombre  hues  against  the  acclamations  of  • 
the  chorus,  and  mingling  with  Mahomet's  tones  as  he  throws 
his  wife  aside  as  a  tool  of  no  further  use,  still  showing  her 
that  he  can  never  forget  her !  What  fireworks  of  triumph ! 
what  a  rush  of  glad  and  rippling  song  go  up  from  the  two 
young  voices  (first  and  second  soprano)  of  Ayesha  and  Hafsa, 
supported  by  Ali  and  his  wife,  by  Omar  and  Abubekir! 
Weep  ! — rejoice ! — Triumph  and  tears !     Such  is  life." 

Marianna  could  not  control  her  tears,  and  Andrea  was  so 
deeply  moved  that  his  eyes  were  moist.  The  !N"eapolitan  cook 
was  startled  by  the  magnetic  influence  of  the  ideas  expressed 
by  Gambara's  convulsive  accents. 

The  composer  looked  round,  saw  the  group,  and  smiled. 

"At  last  you  understand  me !"  said  he. 

No  conqueror,  led  in  pomp  to  the  Capitol  under  the  purple 
beams  of  glory,  as  the  crown  was  placed  on  his  head  amid 
the  acclamations  of  a  nation,  ever  wore  such  an  expression. 
The  composer's  face  was  radiant,  like  that  of  a  holy  martyr. 
No  one  dispelled  the  error.  A  terrible  smile  parted 
Marianna's  lips.  The  Count  was  appalled  by  the  guileless- 
ness  of  this  mania. 


364  GAMBABA 

"Act  III,"  said  the  enchanted  musician,  reseating  him- 
self at  the  piano.  "{Andantino,  solo.)  Mahomet  in  his 
seraglio,  surrounded  by  women,  but  not  happy.  Quartette 
of  Houris  (A  major).  What  pompous  harmony,  what  trills 
as  of  ecstatic  nightingales!  Modulation  (into  F  sharp 
minor).  The  theme  is  stated  (on  the  dominant  E  and  re- 
peated in  F  major).  Here  every  delight  is  grouped  and  ex- 
pressed to  give  effect  to  the  contrast  of  the  gloomy  finale  of 
the  first  act.  After  the  dancing,  Mahomet  rises  and  sings  a 
grand  bravura  air  (in  F  minor),  repelling  the  perfect  and 
devoted  love  of  his  first  wife,  but  confessing  himself  con- 
quered by  polygamy.  Never  has  a  musician  had  so  fine  a 
subject !  The  orchestra  and  the  chorus  of  female  voices  ex- 
press the  joys  of  the  Houris,  while  Mahomet  reverts  to  the 
melancholy  strain  of  the  opening.  Where  is  Beethoven,'* 
cried  Gambara,  "to  appreciate  this  prodigious  reaction  of  my 
opera  on  itself  ?     How  completely  it  all  rests  on  the  bass. 

"It  is  thus  that  Beethoven  composed  his  E  minor  sym- 
phony. But  his  heroic  work  is  purely  instrumental,  whereas 
here,  my  heroic  phrase  is  worked  out  on  a  sextette  of  the 
finest  human  voices,  and  a  chorus  of  the  faithful  on  guard 
at  the  door  of  the  sacred  dwelling.  I  have  every  resource 
of  melody  and  harmony  at  my  command,  an  orchestra  and 
voices.  Listen  to  the  utterance  of  all  these  phases  of  human 
life,  rich  and  poor ; — battle,  triumph,  and  exhaustion ! 

"Ali  arrives,  the  Koran  prevails  in  every  province  (duet 
in  D  minor).  Mahomet  places  himself  in  the  hands  of  his 
two  fathers-in-law;  he  will  abdicate  his  rule  and  die  in  re- 
tirement to  consolidate  his  work.  A  magnificent  sextette  (B 
flat  major).  He  takes  leave  of  all  (solo  in  F  natural).  His 
two  fathers-in-law,  constituted  his  vicars  or  Khalifs,  appeal 
to  the  people.  A  great  triumphal  march,  and  a  prayer  by 
all  the  Arabs  kneeling  before  the  sacred  house,  the  Kasbah, 
from  which  a  pigeon  is  seen  to  fly  away  (the  same  key). 
This  prayer,  sung  by  sixty  voices  and  led  by  the  women  (in 
B  flat),  crowns  the  stupendous  work  expressive  of  the  life  of 


GAMBARA  885 

nations  and  of  man.  Here  you  have  every  emotion,  human 
and  divine." 

Andrea  gazed  at  Gambara  in  blank  amazement.  Though 
at  first  he  had  been  struck  by  the  terrible  irony  of  the  situa- 
tion,— this  man  expressing  the  feelings  of  Mahomet's  wife 
without  discovering  them  in  Marianna, — the  husband's 
hallucination  was  as  nothing  compared  with  the  composer's. 
There  was  no  hint  even  of  a  poetical  or  musical  idea  in  the 
hideous  cacophony  with  which  he  had  deluged  their  ears ;  the 
first  principles  of  harmony,  the  most  elementary  rules  of  com- 
position, were  absolutely  alien  to  this  chaotic  structure.  In- 
stead of  the  scientifically  compacted  music  which  Gambara 
described,  his  fingers  produced  sequences  of  fifths,  sevenths, 
and  octaves,  of  major  thirds,  progressions  of  fourths  with  no 
supporting  bass, — a  medley  of  discordant  sounds  struck  out 
haphazard  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  excruciating  to  the  least 
sensitive  ear.  It  is  difficult  to  give  any  idea  of  the  grotesque 
performance.  New  words  would  be  needed  to  describe  this 
impossible  music. 

Andrea,  painfully  affected  by  this  worthy  man's  madness, 
colored,  and  stole  a  glance  at  Marianna;  while  she,  turning 
pale  and  looking  down,  could  not  restrain  her  tears.  In  the 
midst  of  this  chaos  of  notes,  Gambara  had  every  now  and 
then  given  vent  to  his  rapture  in  exclamations  of  delight. 
He  had  closed  his  eyes  in  ecstasy;  had  smiled  at  his  piano; 
had  looked  at  it  with  a  frown ;  put  out  his  tongue  at  it  after 
the  fashion  of  the  inspired  performer, — in  short,  was  quite 
intoxicated  with  the  poetry  that  filled  his  brain,  and  that  he 
had  vainly  striven  to  utter.  The  strange  discords  that  clashed 
under  his  fingers  had  obviously  sounded  in  his  ears  like 
celestial  harmonies. 

A  deaf  man,  seeing  the  inspired  gaze  of  his  blue  eyes 
open  on  another  world,  the  rosy  glow  that  tinged  his  cheeks, 
and,  above  all,  the  heavenly  serenity  which  ecstasy  stamped 
on  his  proud  and  noble  countenance,  would  have  supposed 
that  he  was  looking  on  at  the  improvisation  of  a  really  great 
artist.     The  illusion  would  have  been  all  the  more  natural 


866  GAMBARA 

because  the  performance  of  this  mad  music  required  immerw*. 
executive  skill  to  achieve  such  fingering.  Gambara  must  have 
worked  at  it  for  years. 

Nor  were  his  hands  alone  employed;  his  feet  were  con- 
stantly at  work  with  complicated  pedaling;  his  body  swayed 
to  and  fro;  the  perspiration  poured  down  his  face  while  he 
toiled  to  produce  a  great  crescendo  with  the  feeble  means 
the  thankless  instrument  placed  at  his  command.  He 
stamped,  puffed,  shouted;  his  fingers  were  as  swift  as  the 
serpent's  double  tongue;  and  finally,  at  the  last  crash  on 
the  keys,  he  fell  back  in  his  chair,  resting  his  head  on  the  top 
of  it. 

"Per  Bacco!  I  am  quite  stunned,"  said  the  Count  as  he 
left  the  house.  "A  child  dancing  on  the  keyboard  would 
make  better  music." 

"Certainly  mere  chance  could  not  more  successfully  avoid 
hitting  two  notes  in  concord  than  that  possessed  creature 
has  done  during  the  past  hour,"  said  Giardini. 

"How  is  it  that  the  regular  beauty  of  Marianna's  features  is 
not  spoiled  by  incessantly  hearing  such  a  hideous  medley?", 
said  the  Count  to  himself.  "Marianna  will  certainly  grow 
ugly." 

"Signor,  she  must  be  saved  from  that,"  cried  Giardini. 

"Yes,"  said  Andrea.  "I  have  thought  of  that.  Still,  to 
be  sure  that  my  plans  are  not  based  on  error,  I  must  con- 
firm my  doubts  by  another  experiment.  I  will  return  and 
examine  the  instruments  he  has  invented.  To-morrow,  after 
dinner,  we  will  have  a  little  supper.  I  will  send  in  some 
wine  and  little  dishes." 

The  cook  bowed. 

Andrea  spent  the  following  day  in  superintending  the  ar- 
rangement of  the  rooms  where  he  meant  to  install  the  artist 
in  a  humble  home. 

In  the  evening  the  Count  made  his  appearance,  and  found 
the  wine,  according  to  his  instructions,  set  out  with  some 
care  by  Marianna  and  Giardini. .  Gambara  proudly  exhibited 
the  little  drums,  on  which  lay  the  powder  by  means  of  which 


GAMBARA  867 

he  made  his  observations  on  the  pitch  and  quality  of  the 
sounds  emitted  by  his  instruments. 

"You  see,"  said  he,  "by  what  simple  means  I  can  prove  the 
most  important  propositions.  Acoustics  thus  can  show  me 
the  analogous  effects  of  sound  on  every  object  of  its  impact. 
All  harmonies  start  from  a  common  centre  and  preserve  the 
closest  relations  among  themselves;  or  rather,  harmony,  like 
light,  is  decomposable  by  our  art  as  a  ray  is  by  a  prism." 

He  then  displayed  the  instruments  constructed  in  accord- 
ance with  his  laws,  explaining  the  changes  he  had  introduced 
into  their  constitution.  And  finally  he  announced  that  to 
conclude  this  preliminary  inspection,  which  could  only  satisfy 
a  superficial  curiosity,  he  would  perform  on  an  instrument 
that  contained  all  the  elements  of  a  complete  orchestra,  and 
which  he  called  a  Panharmonicon. 

"If  it  is  the  machine  in  that  huge  case,  which  brings 
down  on  us  the'  complaints  of  the  neighborhood  whenever  you 
work  at  it,  you  will  not  play  on  it  long,"  said  Giardini.  "The 
police  will  interfere.     Eemember  that !" 

"If  that  poor  idiot  stays  in  the  room,"  said  Gambara  in  a 
whisper  to  the  Count,  "I  cannot  possibly  play." 

Andrea  dismissed  the  cook,  promising  a  handsome  reward 
if  he  would  keep  watch  outside  and  hinder  the  neighbors  or  the 
police  from  interfering.  Giardini,  who  had  not  stinted  him- 
self while  helping  Gambara  to  wine,  was  quite  willing. 

Gambara,  without  being  drunk,  was  in  the  condition  when 
every  power  of  the  brain  is  over-wrought;  when  the  walls 
of  the  room  are  transparent;  when  the  garret  has  no  roof, 
and  the  soul  soars  in  the  empyrean  of  spirits. 

Marianna,  with  some  little  difficulty,  removed  the  covers 
from  an  instrument  as  large  as  a  grand  piano,  but  with  an 
upper  case  added.  This  strange-looking  instrument,  besides 
this  second  body  and  its  keyboard,  supported  the  openings  or 
bells  of  various  wind  instruments  and  the  closed  funnels  of 
a  few  organ  pipes. 

"Will  you  play  me  the  prayer  you  say  is  so  fine  at  the  end 
of  your  opera?"  said  the  Count. 


868  6AMBARA 

To  the  great  surprise  of  both  Marianna  and  the  Count, 
Gambara  began  with  a  succession  of  chords  that  proclaimed 
him  a  master;  and  their  astonishment  gave  way  first  to 
amazed  admiration  and  then  to  perfect  rapture,  effacing  all 
thought  of  the  place  and  the  performer.  The  effects  of  a 
real  orchestra  ^could  not  have  been  finer  than  the  voices  of 
the  wind  instruments,  which  were  like  those  of  an  organ  and 
combined  wonderfully  with  the  harmonies  of  the  strings. 
But  the  unfinished  condition  of  the  machine  set  limits  to 
the  composer's  execution,  and  his  idea  seemed  all  the  greater ; 
for,  often,  the  very  perfection  of  a  work  of  art  limits  its  sug- 
gestiveness  to  the  recipient  soul.  Is  not  this  proved  by  the 
preference  accorded  to  a  sketch  rather  than  a  finished  picture 
when  on  their  trial  before  those  who  interpret  a  work  in  their 
own  mind  rather  than  accept  it  rounded  off  and  complete? 

The  purest  and  serenest  music  that  Andrea  had  ever 
listened  to  rose  up  from  under  Gambara's  fingers  like  the 
vapor  of  incense  from  an  altar.  The  composer's  voice  grew 
young  again,  and,  far  from  marring  the  noble  melody,  it 
elucidated  it,  supported  it,  guided  it, — just  as  the  feeble  and 
quavering  voice  of  an  accomplished  reader,  such  as  Andrieux, 
for  instance,  can  expand  the  meaning  of  some  great  scene  by 
Corneille  or  Eacine  by  lending  personal  and  poetical  feeling. 

This  really  angelic  strain  showed  what  treasures  lay  hidden 
in  that  stupendous  opera,  which,  however,  would  never  find 
comprehension  so  long  as  the  musician  persisted  in  tr}dng  to 
explain  it  in  his  present  demented  state.  His  wife  and  thp 
Count  were  equally  divided  between  the  music  and  their  sur- 
prise at  this  hundred-voiced  instrument,  inside  which  a 
stranger  might  have  fancied  an  invisible  chorus  of  girls  were 
hidden,  so  closely  did  some  of  the  tones  resemble  the  human 
voice;  and  they  dared  not  express  their  ideas  by  a  look  or  a 
word.  Marianna's  face  was  lighted  up  by  a  radiant  beam 
of  hope  which  revived  the  glories  of  her  youth.  This 
renascence  of  beauty,  co-existent  with  the  luminous  glow  of 
her  husband's  genius,  cast  a  shade  of  regret  on  the  Count's 
exquisite  pleasure  in  this  mysterious  hour. 


GAMBARA  869 

'TTou  are  our  good  genius!"  whispered  Marianna.  "I 
am  tempted  to  believe  that  you  actually  inspire  him;  for  I, 
wVio  never  am  away  from  him,  have  never  heard  anything 
like  this." 

"And  Kadijah's  farewell !"  cried  Gambara,  who  sang  the 
cavatina  which  he  had  described  the  day  before  as  sublime, 
and  which  now  brought  tears  to  the  eyes  of  the  lovers,  so  per- 
fectly did  it  express  the  loftiest  devotion  of  love. 

"Who  can  have  taught  you  such  strains  ?"  cried  the  Count. 

"The  Spirit,"  said  Gambara.  "When  he  appears,  all  is 
fire.  I  see  the  melodies  there  before  me;  lovely,  fresh  in 
vivid  hues  like  flowers.  They  beam  on  me,  they  ring  out, — 
and  I  listen.  But  it  takes  a  long,  long  time  to  reproduce 
them." 

"Some  more !"  said  Marianna. 

Gambara,  who  could  not  tire,  played  on  without  effort  or 
antics.  He  performed  his  overture  with  such  skill,  bringing 
out  such  rich  and  original  musical  effects,  that  the  Count 
was  quite  dazzled,  and  at  last  believed  in  some  magic  like 
that  commanded  by  Paganini  and  Liszt, — a  style  of  execution 
which  changes  every  aspect  of  music  as  an  art,  by  giving  it 
a  poetic  quality  far  above  musical  inventions. 

"Well,  Excellenza,  and  can  you  cure  him  ?"  asked  Giardini, 
as  Andrea  came  out. 

"I  shall  soon  find  out,"  replied  the  Count.  "This  man's 
intellect  has  two  windows;  one  is  closed  to  the  world,  the 
other  is  open  to  the  heavens.  The  first  is  music,  the  second 
is  poetry.  Till  now  he  has  insisted  on  sitting  in  front  of 
the  shuttered  window;  he  must  be  got  to  the  other.  It  was 
you,  Giardini,  who  first  started  me  in  the  right  track,  by  tell- 
ing me  that  your  client's  mind  was  clearer  after  drinking  a 
few  glasses  of  wine." 

"Yes,"  cried  the  cook,  "and  I  can  see  what  your  plan  is." 

"If  it  is  not  too  late  to  make  the  thunder  of  poetry  audi- 
ble to  his  ears,  in  the  midst  of  the  harmonies  of  some  noble 
music,  we  mast  put  him  into  a  condition  to  receive  it  and  ap- 


370  GAMBARA 

predate  it.     Will  you  help  me  to  intoxicate  Gambara,  my 
good  fellow  ?    Will  you  be  none  the  worse  for  it  ?" 

''What  do  you  mean,  Excellenza?" 

Andrea  went  off  without  answering  him,  laughing  at  the 
acumen  still  left  to  this  cracked  wit. 

On  the  following  day  he  called  for  Marianna,  who  had 
spent  the  morning  in  arranging  her  dress, — a  simple  but 
decent  outfit,  on  which  she  had  spent  all  her  little  savings. 
The  transformation  would  have  destroyed  the  illusions  of  a 
mere  dangler;  but  Andrea's  caprice  had  become  a  passion. 
Marianna,  diverted  of  her  picturesque  poverty,  and  looking 
like  any  ordinary  woman  of  modest  rank,  inspired  dreams  of 
wedded  life. 

He  handed  her  into  a  hackney  coach,  and  told  her  of  the 
plans  he  had  in  his  head;  and  she  approved  of  everything, 
happy  in  finding  her  admirer  more  lofty,  more  generous, 
more  disinterested  than  she  had  dared  to  hope.  He  took  her 
to  a  little  apartment,  where  he  had  allowed  himself  to  remind 
her  of  his  good  offices  by  some  of  the  elegant  trifles  which 
have  a  charm  for  the  most  virtuous  women. 

"I  will  never  speak  to  you  of  love  till  you  give  up  all  hope 
of  your  Paolo,"  said  the  Count  to  Marianna,  as  he  bid  her 
good-bye  at  the  Eue  Froid-Manteau.  "You  will  be  witness 
to  the  sincerity  of  my  attempts.  If  they  succeed,  I  may 
find  myself  unequal  to  keeping  up  my  part  as  a  friend ;  but  in 
that  case  I  shall  go  far  away,  Marianna.  Though  I  have 
firmness  enough  to  work  for  your  happiness,  I  shall  not  have 
so  much  as  will  enable  me  to  look  on  at  it." 

"Do  not  say  such  things.     Generosity,  too,  has  its  dan- 
gers," said  she,  swallowing  down  her  tears.     "But  are  you 
going  now?" 
,     "Yes,"  said  Andrea;  "be  happy,  without  any  drawbacks." 

If  Giardini  might  be  believed,  the  new  treatment  was 
beneficial  to  both  husband  and  wife.  Every  evening  after 
his  wine,  Gambara  seemed  less  self-centered,  talked  more, 
and  with  great  lucidity ;  he  even  spoke  at  last  of  reading  the 


GAMBARA  371 

papers.  Andrea  could  not  help  quaking  at  his  unexpectedly 
rapid  success ;  but  though  his  distress  made  him  aware  of  the 
strength  of  his  passion,  it  did  not  make  him  waver  in  his 
virtuous  resolve. 

One  day  he  called  to  note  the  progress  of  this  singular 
cure.  Though  the  state  of  the  patient  at  first  gave  him  sat- 
isfaction, his  joy  was  dashed  by  Marianna's  beauty,  for  an 
easy  life  had  restored  its  brilliancy.  He  called  now  every 
evening  to  enjoy  calm  and  serious  conversation,  to  which  he 
contributed  lucid  and  well  considered  arguments  controvert- 
ing Gambara's  singular  theories.  He  took  advantage  of  the 
remarkable  acumen  of  the  composer's  mind  as  to  every  point 
not  too  directly  bearing  on  his  manias,  to  obtain  his  assent 
to  principles  in  various  branches  of  art,  and  apply  them  sub- 
sequently to  music.  All  was  well  so  long  as  the  patient's 
brain  was  heated  with  the  fumes  of  wine;  but  as  soon  as  he 
had  recovered — or,  rather,  lost — ^his  reason,  he  was  a  mono- 
maniac once  more. 

However,  Paolo  was  already  more  easily  diverted  by  the 
impression  of  outside  things;  his  mind  was  more  capable  of 
addressing  itself  to  several  points  at  a  time. 

Andrea,  who  took  an  artistic  interest  in  his  semi-medical 
treatment,  thought  at  last  that  the  time  had  come  for  a  great 
experiment.  He  would  give  a  dinner  at  his  own  house,  to 
which  he  would  invite  Giardini  for  the  sake  of  keeping  the 
tragedy  and  the  parody  side  by  side,  and  afterwards  take  the 
party  to  the  first  performance  of  Rohert  le  Diahle.  He  had 
seen  it  in  rehearsal,  and  he  judged  it  well  fitted  to  open  his 
patient's  eyes. 

By  the  end  of  the  second  course,  Gambara  was  already 
tipsy,  laughing  at  himself  with  a  very  good  grace;  while 
Giardini  confessed  that  his  own  culinary  innovations  were 
not  worth  a  rush.  Andrea  had  neglected  nothing  that  could 
contribute  to  this  twofold  miracle.  The  wines  of  Orvieto 
and  of  Montefiascone,  conveyed  with  the  peculiar  care  needed 
in  moving  them,  Lachrymachristi  and  Giro, — all  the  heady 
liqueurs  of  la  cara  Patria, — ^went  to  their  brains  with  the 


872  GAMBARA 

intoxication  alike  of  the  grape  and  of  fond  memory.  At 
dessert  the  musician  and  the  cook  both  abjured  every  heresy; 
one  was  humming  a  cavatina  by  Kossini,  and  the  other  piling 
delicacies  on  his  plate  and  washing  them  down  with 
Maraschino  from  Zara,  to  the  prosperity  of  the  French  cuisine. 

The  Count  took  advantage  of  this  happy  frame  of  mind, 
and  Gambara  allowed  himself  to  be  taken  to  the  opera  like 
a  lamb. 

At  the  first  introductory  notes  Gambara's  intoxication 
appeared  to  clear  away  and  make  way  for  the  feverish  excite- 
ment which  sometimes  brought  his  judgment  and  his  imagina- 
tion into  perfect  harmony ;  for  it  was  their  habitual  disagree- 
ment, no  doubt,  that  caused  his  madness.  The  ruling  idea 
of  that  great  musical  drama  appeared  to  him,  no  doubt,  in 
its  noble  simplicity,  like  a  lightning  flash,  illuminating  the 
utter  darkness  in  which  he  lived.  To  his  unsealed  eyes  this 
music  revealed  the  immense  horizons  of  a  world  in  which 
he  found  himself  for  the  first  time,  though  recognizing  it 
as  that  he  had  seen  in  his  dreams.  He  fancied  himself  trans- 
ported into  the  scenery  of  his  native  land,  where  that  beautiful 
Italian  landscape  begins  at  what  Napoleon  so  cleverly  de- 
scribed as  the  glacis  of  the  Alps.  Carried  back  by  memor}' 
to  the  time  when  his  young  and  eager  brain  was  as  yet  un 
troubled  by  the  ecstasy  of  his  too  exuberant  imagination, 
he  listened  with  religious  awe  and  would  not  utter  a  single 
word.  The  Count  respected  the  internal  travail  of  his  soul. 
Till  half-past  twelve  Gambara  sat  so  perfectly  motionless 
that  the  frequenters  of  the  opera  house  took  him,  no  doubt, 
for  what  he  was — a  man  drunk. 

On  their  return,  Andrea  began  to  attack  Meyerbeer's  work, 
in  order  to  wake  up  Gambara,  who  sat  sunk  in  the  half -torpid 
state  common  in  drunkards. 

*^hat  is  there  in  that  incoherent  score  to  reduce  you  to 
a  condition  of  somnambulism?"  asked  Andrea,  when  they 
got  out  at  his  house.  "The  story  of  Robert  le  Diable,  to  be 
sure,  is  not  devoid  of  interest,  and  Holtei  has  worked  it  out 
with  great  skill  in  a  drama  that  is  very  well  written  and  full 


GAMBARA  878 

of  strong  and  pathetic  situations;  but  the  French  librettist 
has  contrived  to  extract  from  it  the  most  ridiculous  farrago 
of  nonsense.  The  absurdities  of  the  libretti  of  Vesari  and 
Schikander  are  not  to  compare  with  those  of  the  words  of 
Robert  le  Diable ;  it  is  a  dramatic  nightmare,  which  oppresses 
the  hearer  without  deeply  moving  him. 

"And  Meyerbeer  has  given  the  devil  a  too  prominent  part. 
Bertram  and  Alice  represent  the  contest  between  right  and 
wrong,  the  spirits  of  good  and  evil.  This  antagonism  of- 
fered a  splendid  opportunity  to  the  composer.  The  sweetest 
melodies,  in  juxtaposition  with  harsh  and  crude  strains,  was 
the  natural  outcome  of  the  form  of  the  story;  but  in  the 
German  composer's  score  the  demons  sing  better  than  the 
saints.  The  heavenly  airs  belie  their  origin,  and  when  the 
composer  abandons  the  infernal  motives  he  returns  to  them 
as  soon  as  possible,  fatigued  with  the  effort  of  keeping  aloof 
from  them.  Melody,  the  golden  thread  that  ought  never  to 
be  lost  throughout  so  vast  a  plan,  often  vanishes  from  Meyer- 
beer's work.  Feeling  counts  for  nothing,  the  heart  has  no 
part  in  it.  Hence  we  never  come  upon  those  happy  inven- 
tions, those  artless  scenes,  which  captivate  all  our  sympathies 
and  leave  a  blissful  impression  on  the  soul. 

"Harmony  reigns  supreme,  instead  of  being  the  foundation 
from  which  the  melodic  groups  of  the  musical  picture  stand 
forth.  These  discordant  combinations,  far  from  moving 
the  listener,  arouse  in  him  a  feeling  analogous  to  that  which 
he  would  experience  on  seeing  a  rope-dancer  hanging  to  a 
thread  and  swaying  between  life  and  death.  Never  does  a 
soothing  strain  come  in  to  mitigate  the  fatiguing  suspense. 
It  really  is  as  though  the  composer  had  had  no  other  object 
in  view  than  to  produce  a  baroque  effect  without  troubling 
himself  about  musical  truth  or  unit}'^,  or  about  the  capabilities 
of  human  voices  which  are  swamped  by  this  flood  of  instru- 
mental noise." 

"Silence,  my  friend !"  cried  Gambara.  "I  am  still  under 
the  spell  of  that  glorious  chorus  of  hell,  made  still  more  ter- 
rible by  the  long  trumpets, — a,  new  method  of  instruraenta- 


S74  OAMBARA 

tion.  The  broken  cadenzas  which  give  such  force  to  Robert's 
scene,  the  cavatina  in  the  fourth  act,  the  finale  of  the  first, 
all  hold  me  in  the  grip  of  a  supernatural  power.  N"o,  not 
even  Gluck's  declamation  ever  produced  so  prodigious  an 
ejffect,  and  I  am  amazed  by  such  skill  and  learning.'^ 

"Signor  Maestro,"  said  Andrea,  smiling,  "allow  me  to  con- 
tradict you.  Gluck,  before  he  wrote,  reflected  long;  he  cal- 
culated the  chances,  and  he  decided  on  a  plan  which  might 
,be  subsequently  modified  by  his  inspirations  as  to  detail,  but 
hindered  him  from  ever  losing  his  way.  Hence  his  power 
of  emphasis,  his  declamatory  style  thrilling  with  life  and 
truth.  I  quite  agree  with  you  that  Meyerbeer's  learning  is 
transcendent;  but  science  is  a  defect  when  it  evicts  inspira- 
tion, and  it  seems  to  me  that  we  have  in  this  opera  the  pain- 
ful toil  of  a  refined  craftsman  who  in  his  music  has  but 
picked  up  thousands  of  phrases  out  of  other  operas,  damned 
or  forgotten,  and  appropriated  them,  while  extending,  modify- 
ing, or  condensing  them.  But  he  has  fallen  into  the  error 
of  all  selectors  of  centos, — an  abuse  of  good  things.  This 
clever  harvester  of  notes  is  lavish  of  discords,  which,  when 
too  often  introduced,  fatigue  the  ear  till  those  great  effects 
pall  upon  it  which  a  composer  should  husband  vrith  care 
to  make  the  more  effective  use  of  them  when  the  situation 
requires  it.  These  enharmonic  passages  recur  to  satiety,  and 
the  abuse  of  the  plagal  cadence  deprives  it  of  its  religious 
solemnity. 

"I  know,  of  course,  that  every  musician  has  certain  forms 
to  which  he  drifts  back  in  spite  of  himself ;  he  should  watch 
himself  so  as  to  avoid  that  blunder.  A  picture  in  which 
there  were  no  colors  but  blue  and  red  would  be  untrue  to 
nature,  and  fatigue  the  eye.  And  thus  the  constantly  re- 
curring rhythm  in  the  score  of  Robert  le  Diahle  makes  the 
work,  as  a  whole,  appear  monotonous.  As  to  the  effect  of  the 
long  trumpets,  of  which  you  speak,  it  has  long  been  known 
in  Germany ;  and  what  Meyerbeer  offers  us  as  a  novelty  was 
constantly  used  by  Mozart,  who  gives  just  such  a  chorus  to 
the  devils  in  Don  Oiovanni" 


OAMBABA  375 

By  plying  Gambara,  meanwhile,  with  fresh  libations, 
'Andrea  thus  strove,  by  his  contradietoriness,  to  bring  the  mu- 
sician back  to  a  true  sense  of  music,  by  proving  to  him  that 
his  so-called  mission  was  not  to  try  to  regenerate  an  art  be- 
yond his  powers,  but  to  seek  to  express  himself  in  another 
form ;  namely,  that  of  poetry. 

"But,  my  dear  Count,  you  have  understood  nothing  of 
that  stupendous  musical  drama,"  said  Gambara,  airily,  as 
standing  in  front  of  Andrea's  piano  he  struck  the  keys, 
listened  to  the  tone,  and  then  seated  himself,  meditating  for 
a  few  minutes  as  if  to  collect  his  ideas. 

"To  begin  with,  you  must  know,"  said  he,  "that  an  ear 
as  practised  as  mine  at  once  detected  that  labor  of  choice 
and  setting  of  which  you  spoke.  Yes,  the  music  has  been 
selected,  lovingly,  from  the  storehouse  of  a  rich  and  fertile 
imagination  wherein  learning  has  squeezed  every  idea  to 
extract  the  very  essence  of  music.  I  will  illustrate  the  pro- 
cess." 

He  rose  to  carry  the  candles  into  the  adjoining  room, 
and  before  sitting  down  again  he  drank  a  full  glass  of  Giro, 
a  Sardinian  wine,  as  full  of  fire  as  the  old  wines  of  Tokay 
can  inspire. 

"Now,  you  see,"  said  Gambara,  '*this  music  is  not  written 
for  misbelievers,  nor  for  those  who  know  not  love.  If  you 
have  never  suffered  from  the  virulent  attacks  of  an  evil 
spirit  who  shifts  your  object  just  as  you  are  taking  aim, 
who  puts  a  fatal  end  to  your  highest  hopes, — ^in  one  word, 
if  you  have  never  felt  the  deviFs  tail  whisking  over  the  world, 
the  opera  of  Robert  le  Diahle  must  be  to  you,  what  the 
Apocalypse  is  to  those  who  believe  that  all  things  will  end 
with  them.  But  if,  persecuted  and  wretched,  you  understand 
that  Spirit  of  Evil, — ^the  monstrous  ape  who  is  perpetually 
employed  in  destroying  the  work  of  God, — if  you  can  con- 
ceive of  him  as  having,  not  indeed  loved,  but  ravished,  an  al- 
most divine  woman,  and  achieved  through  her  the  joy  of 
patei-nity ;  as  so  loving  his  son  that  he  would  rather  have  him 
eternally  miserable  with  himself  than  think  of  him  as  eter- 


376  6AMBABA 

nally  happy  with  God; if, finally,  you  can  imagine  the  mother's 
soul  for  ever  hovering  over  the  child's  head  to  snatch  it  from 
the  atrocious  temptations  offered  by  its  father, — even  then 
you  will  have  but  a  faint  idea  of  this  stupendous  drama, 
which  needs  but  little  to  make  it  worthy  of  comparison  with 
Mozart's  Don  Giovanni.  Don  Giovanni  is  in  its  perfection 
the  greater,  I  grant;  Rohert  le  Diahle  expresses  ideas,  Don 
Giovanni  arouses  sensations.  Don  Giovanni  is  as  yet  the 
only  musical  work  in  which  harmony  and  melody  are  com- 
bined in  exactly  the  right  proportions.  In  this  lies  its  only 
superiority,  for  Robert  is  the  richer  work.  But  how  vain 
are  such  comparisons  since  each  is  so  beautiful  in  its  own 
way! 

"To  me,  suffering  as  I  do  from  the  demon's  repeated 
shocks,  Eobert  spoke  with  greater  power  than  to  you ;  it  struck 
me  as  being  at  the  same  time  vast  and  concentrated. 

"Thanks  to  you,  I  have  been  transported  to  the  glorious 
land  of  dreams  where  our  senses  expand,  and  the  world  works 
on  a  scale  which  is  gigantic  as  compared  with  man." 

He  was  silent  for  a  space. 

"I  am  trembling  still,"  said  the  ill-starred  artist,  "from  the 
four  bars  of  cymbals  which  pierced  to  my  marrow  as  they 
open  that  short,  abrupt  introduction  with  its  solo  for  trom- 
bone, its  flutes,  oboes,  and  clarionet,  all  suggesting  the  most 
fantastic  effects  of  color.  The  andante  in  C  minor  is  a 
foretaste  of  the  subject  of  the  evocation  of  the  ghosts  in  the 
abbey,  and  gives  grandeur  to  the  scene  by  anticipating  the 
spiritual  struggle.     I  shivered." 

Gambara  pressed  the  keys  with  a  firm  hand  and  expanded 
Meyerbeer's  theme  in  a  masterly  fantasia,  a  sort  of  outpour- 
ing of  his  soul  after  the  manner  of  Liszt.  It  was  no  longer 
the  piano,  it  was  a  whole  orchestra  that  they  heard ;  the  very 
genius  of  music  rose  before  them. 

"That  is  worthy  of  Mozart !"  he  exclaimed.  "See  how 
that  German  can  handle  his  chords,  and  through  what  mas- 
terly modulations  he  raises  the  image  of  terror  to  come  to 
the  dominant  C.     I  can  hear  all  hell  in  it  1 


GAMBARA  377 

*'The  curtain  rises.  "What  do  I  see?  The  only  scene  to 
which  we  gave  the  epithet  infernal:  an  orgy  of  knights  in 
Sicily.  In  that  chorus  in  F  every  human  passion  is  unchained 
in  a  bacchanalian  allegro.  Every  thread  by  which  the  devil 
holds  us  is  pulled.  Yes,  that  is  the  sort  of  glee  that  comes 
over  men  when  they  dance  on  the  edge  of  a  precipice;  they 
make  themselves  giddy.     What  go  there  is  in  that  chorus ! 

"Against  that  chorus — the  reality  of  life — the  simple  life 
of  every-day  virtue  stands  out  in  the  air,  in  G  minor,  sung  by 
Eaimbaut.  For  a  moment  it  refreshed  my  spirit  to  hear 
the  simple  fellow,  representative  of  verdurous  and  fruitful 
Normandy,  which  he  brings  to  Eobert's  mind  in  the  midst 
of  his  drunkenness.  The  sweet  influence  of  his  beloved  na- 
tive land  lends  a  touch  of  tender  color  to  this  gloomy  open- 
ing. 

"Then  comes  the  wonderful  air  in  C  major,  supported 
by  the  chorus  in  C  minor,  so  expressive  of  the  subject.  'Je 
suis  Robert!'  he  immediately  breaks  out.  The  wrath  of  the 
prince,  insulted  by  his  vassal,  is  already  more  than  natural 
anger;  but  it  will  die  away,  for  memories  of  his  childhood 
come  to  him,  with  Alice,  in  the  bright  and  graceful  allegro 
in  A  major. 

"Can  you  not  hear  the  cries  of  the  innocent  dragged 
into  this  infernal  drama, — a  persecuted  creature?  'Non, 
non/ ''  sang  Gambara,  who  made  the  consumptive  piano  sing. 
"His  native  land  and  tender  emotions  have  come  back  to  him ; 
his  childhood  and  its  memories  have  blossomed  anew  in 
Eobert's  heart.  And  now  his  mother's  shade  rises  up,  bring- 
ing with  it  soothing  religious  thoughts.  It  is  religion  that 
lives  in  that  beautiful  song  in  E  major,  with  its  wonderful 
harmonic  and  melodic  progression  in  the  words : 

' '  Car  dans  les  cieux,  coinine  sur  la  terre, 
Sa  mfere  va  prier  pour  lui. 

"Here  the  struggle  begins  between  the  unseen  powers  and 
the  only  human  being  who  has  the  fire  of  hell  in  his  veins 
to  enable  him  to  resist  them;  and  to  make  this  quite  clear, 


878  6AMBARA 

as  Bertram  comes  on,  the  great  musician  has  given  the  or- 
chestra a  passage  introducing  a  reminiscence  of  Eaimbaut's 
ballad.  What  a  stroke  of  art!  What  cohesion  of  all  the 
parts!    What  solidity  of  structure! 

"The  devil  is  there,  in  hiding,  but  restless.  The  conflict 
of  the  antagonistic  powers  opens  with  Alice's  terror;  she 
recognizes  the  devil  of  the  image  of  Saint  ^lichael  in  her 
village.  The  musical  subject  is  worked  out  through  an  end- 
less variety  of  phases.  The  antithesis  indispensable  in  opera 
is  emphatically  presented  in  a  noble  recitative,  such  as  a  Gluck 
might  have  composed,  between  Bertram  and  Eobert: 

"  Tu  ne  sauraa  jamais  k  quel  excfes  je  t'aime. 

"In  that  diabolical  C  minor,  Bertram,  with  his  terrible  bass, 
begins  his  work  of  undermining  which  will  overthrow  every 
effort  of  the  vehement,  passionate  man. 

"Here,  everything  is  appalling.  Will  the  crime  get  pos- 
session of  the  criminal  ?  Will  the  executioner  seize  his  victim  ? 
Will  sorrow  consume  the  artist's  genius?  Will  the  disease 
kill  the  patient?  or,  will  the  guardian  angel  save  the  Chris- 
tian? 

"Then  comes  the  finale,  the  gambling  scene  in  which 
Bertram  tortures  his  son  by  rousing  him  to  tremendous 
emotions.  Eobert,  beggared,  frenzied,  searching  every- 
thing, eager  for  blood,  fire,  and  sword,  is  his  own  son;  in 
this  mood  he  is  exactly  like  his  father.  What  hideous  glee 
we  hear  in  Bertram's  words :  'Je  ris  de  tes  coups !'  And  how 
perfectly  the  Venetian  barcarole  comes  in  here.  Through 
what  wondrous  transitions  the  diabolical  parent  is  brought  on 
to  the  stage  once  more  to  make  Eobert  throw  the  dice. 

"This  first  act  is  overwhelming  to  any  one  capable  of  work- 
ing out  the  subjects  in  his  very  heart,  and  lending  them  the 
breadth  of  development  which  the  composer  intended  them  to 
call  forth. 

"Nothing  but  love  could  now  be  contrasted  with  this  noble 
symphony  of  song,  in  which  you  will  detect  no  monotony, 


GAMBARA  379 

no  repetition  of  means  and  effects.  It  is  one,  but  many; 
the  characteristic  of  all  that  is  truly  great  and  natural. 

"I  breathe  more  freely;  I  find  myself  in  the  elegant  circle 
of  a  gallant  court ;  I  hear  Isabella's  charming  phrases,  fresh, 
but  almost  melancholy,  and  the  female  chorus  in  two  divi- 
sions, and  in  imitation,  with  a  suggestion  of  the  Moorish  color- 
ing of  Spain.  Here  the  terrifying  music  is  softened  to  gen- 
tler hues,  like  a  storm  dying  away,  and  ends  in  the  florid 
prettiness  of  a  duet  wholly  unlike  anything  that  has  come 
before  it.  After  the  turmoil  of  a  camp  full  of  errant  heroes, 
we  have  a  picture  of  love.  Poet !  I  thank  thee !  My  heart 
could  not  have  borne  much  more.  If  I  could  not  here  and 
there  pluck  the  daisies  of  a  French  light  opera,  if  I  could 
not  hear  the  gentle  wit  of  a  woman  able  to  love  and  to  charm, 
1  could  not  endure  the  terrible  deep  note  on  which  Bertram 
comes  in,  saying  to  his  son:  'Si  je  le  permetsT  when  Robert 
has  promised  the  princess  he  adores  that  he  will  conquer  with 
the  arms  she  has  bestowed  on  him. 

"The  hopes  of  the  gambler  cured  by  love,  the  love  of  a 
most  beautiful  woman, — did  you  observe  that  magnificent 
Sicilian,  with  her  hawk's  eye  secure  of  her  prey?  (What 
interpreters  that  composer  has  found !)  the  hopes  of  the  man 
are  mocked  at  by  the  hopes  of  hell  in  the  tremendous  cry: 
'A  toi,  Robert  de  Normandie!^ 

"And  are  not  you  struck  by  the  gloom  and  horror  of  those 
iong-held  notes,  to  which  the  words  are  set:  'Dans  la  foret 
prochaine'f  We  find  here  all  the  sinister  spells  of  Jerusa- 
lem Delivered,  just  as  we  find  all  chivalry  in  the  chorus  with 
the  Spanish  lilt,  and  in  the  march  tune.  How  original  is 
the  allegro  with  the  modulations  of  the  four  cymbals  (tuned 
to  C,  D,  C,  G,)  !  How  elegant  is  the  call  to  the  lists!  The 
whole  movement  of  the  heroic  life  of  the  period  is  there; 
the  mind  enters  into  it;  I  read  in  it  a  romance,  a  poem  of 
chivalry.  The  exposition  is  now  finished;  the  resources  of 
music  would  seem  to  be  exhausted;  you  have  never  heard 
anything  like  it  before;  and  yet  it  is  homogeneous.  You 
have  had  life  set  before  you,  and  its  one  and  only  crux:  'Shall 


880  GAMBARA 

I  be  happy  or  unhappy?'  is  the  philosopher's  query.  'Shall 
I  be  saved  or  damned?'  asks  the  Christian." 

With  these  words  Gambara  struck  the  last  chord  of  the 
chorus,  dwelt  on  it  with  a  melancholy  modulation,  and  then 
rose  to  drink  another  large  glass  of  Giro.  This  half -African 
vintage  gave  his  face  a  deeper  flush,  for  his  passionate  and 
wonderful  sketch  of  Meyerbeer's  opera  had  made  him  turn 
a  little  pale. 

"That  nothing  may  be  lacking  to  this  composition,"  he 
went  on,  "the  great  artist  has  generously  added  the  only 
buffo  duet  permissible  for  a  devil:  that  in  which  he  tempts 
the  unhappy  troubadour.  The  composer  has  set  jocosity 
side  by  side  with  horror — a  jocosity  in  which  he  mocks  at 
the  only  realism  he  had  allowed  himself  amid  the  sublime 
imaginings  of  his  work — the  pure  calm  love  of  Alice  and 
Eaimbaut;  and  their  life  is  overshadowed  by  the  forecast  of 
evil. 

"None  but  a  lofty  soul  can  feel  the  noble  style  of  these 
buffo  airs;  they  have  neither  the  superabundant  frivolity  of 
Italian  music  nor  the  vulgar  accent  of  French  commonplace ; 
rather  have  they  the  majesty  of  Olympus.  There  is  the 
bitter  laughter  of  a  divine  being  mocking  the  surprise  of  a 
troubadour  Don-Juanizing  himself.  But  for  this  dignity 
we  should  be  too  suddenly  brought  down  to  the  general  tone 
of  the  opera,  here  stamped  on  that  terrible  fury  of  diminished 
sevenths  which  resolves  itself  into  an  infernal  waltz,  and 
finally  brings  us  face  to  face  with  the  demons. 

"How  emphatically  Bertram's  couplet  stands  out  in  B 
minor  against  that  diabolical  chorus,  depicting  his  paternity, 
but  mingling  in  fearful  despair  with  these  demoniacal  strains. 

"Then  comes  the  delightful  transition  of  Alice's  reappear- 
ance, with  the  ritornel  in  B  flat.  I  can  still  hear  that  air  of 
angelical  simplicity — the  nightingale  after  a  storm.  Thus 
the  grand  leading  idea  of  the  whole  is  worked  out  in  the  de- 
tails; for  what  could  be  more  perfectly  in  contrast  with  the 
tumult  of  devils  tossing  in  the  pit  than  that  wonderful  air 
given  to  Alice  ?    'Quand  j'ai  quitte  la  Normandie/ 


GAMBARA  381 

"The  golden  thread  of  melody  flows  on,  side  by  side  with 
the  mighty  harmony,  like  a  heavenly  hope ;  it  is  embroidered 
on  it,  and  with  what  marvelous  skill !  Genius  never  lets 
go  of  the  science  that  guides  it.  Here  Alice's  song  is  in  B 
flat  leading  into  F  sharp,  the  key  of  the  demon's  chorus.  Do 
you  hear  the  tremolo  in  the  orchestra?  The  host  of  devils 
clamor  for  Eobert. 

"Bertram  now  reappears,  and  this  is  the  culminating  point 
of  musical  interest;  after  a  recitative,  worthy  of  comparison 
with  the  finest  work  of  the  great  masters,  comes  the  fierce 
conflict  in  E  flat  between  two  tremendous  forces — one  on  the 
words  'Oui,  tu  me  connais!'  on  a  diminished  seventh;  the 
other,  on  that  sublime  F,  'Le  del  est  avec  moi.'  Hell  and 
the  Crucifix  have  met  for  battle.  Next  we  have  Bertram 
threatening  Alice,  the  most  violent  pathos  ever  heard — the 
Spirit  of  Evil  expatiating  complacently,  and,  as  usual,  ap- 
pealing to  personal  interest.  Robert's  arrival  gives  us  the 
magnificent  unaccompanied  trio  in  A  flat,  the  first  skirmish 
between  the  two  rival  forces  and  the  man.  And  note  how 
clearly  that  is  expressed,"  said  Gambara,  epitomizing  the 
scene  with  such  passion  of  expression  as  startled  Andrea. 

"All  this  avalanche  of  music,  from  the  clash  of  cymbals 
in  common  time,  has  been  gathering  up  to  this  contest  of  three 
voices.  The  magic  of  evil  triumphs !  Alice  flies,  and  you 
have  the  duet  in  D  between  Bertram  and  Robert.  The  devil 
sets  his  talons  in  the  man's  heart;  he  tears  it  to  make  it  his 
own;  he  works  on  every  feeling.  Honor,  hope,  eternal  and 
infinite  pleasures — he  displays  them  all.  He  places  him, 
as  he  did  Jesus,  on  the  pinnacle  of  the  Temple,  and  shows 
him  all  the  treasures  of  the  earth,  the  storehouse  of  sin.  He 
nettles  him  to  flaunt  his  courage ;  and  the  man's  nobler  mind 
is  expressed  in  his  exclamation: 

•'Des  chevaliers  de  ma  patrie 
L'honneur  toujours  fut  le  soutien! 

"And  finally,  to  crown  the  work,  the  theme  comes  in  whicK 


882  6AMBARA 

sounded  the  note  of  fatality  at  the  beginning.     Thus,  the 
leading  strain,  the  magnificent  call  to  the  dead : 

"Nonnes  qui  reposez  sous  cette  froide  pierre, 
M'entendez-voua  ? 

"The  career  of  the  music,  gloriously  worked  out,  is 
gloriously  finished  by  the  allegro  vivace  of  the  bacchanalian 
chorus  in  D  minor.  This,  indeed,  is  the  triumph  of  hell! 
Roll  on,  harmony,  and  wrap  us  in  a  thousand  folds!  Roll 
on,  bewitch  us !  The  powers  of  darkness  have  clutched  their 
prey;  they  hold  him  while  they  dance.  The  great  genius, 
bom  to  conquer  and  to  reign,  is  lost !  The  devils  rejoice, 
misery  stifles  genius,  passion  will  wreck  the  knight !" 

And  here  Gambara  improvised  a  fantasia  of  his  own  on 
the  bacchanalian  chorus,  with  ingenious  variations,  and  hum- 
ming the  air  in  a  melancholy  drone  as  if  to  express  the  secret 
sufferings  he  had  known. 

"Do  you  hear  the  heavenly  lamentations  of  neglected  love  ?" 
he  said.  "Isabella  calls  to  Robert  above  the  grand  chorus 
of  knights  riding  forth  to  the  tournament,  in  which  the  motifs 
of  the  second  act  reappear  to  make  it  clear  that  the  third 
act  has  all  taken  place  in  a  supernatural  sphere.  This  is 
real  life  again.  This  chorus  dies  away  at  the  approach  of  the 
hellish  enchantment  brought  by  Robert  with  the  talisman. 
The  deviltry  of  the  third  act  is  to  be  carried  on.  Here  we 
have  the  duet  with  the  viol ;  the  rhythm  is  highly  expressive 
of  the  brutal  desires  of  a  man  who  is  omnipotent,  and  the 
Princess,  by  plaintive  phrases,  tries  to  win  her  lover  back  to 
moderation.  The  musician  has  here  placed  himself  in  a 
situation  of  great  difficulty,  and  has  surmounted  it  in  the 
loveliest  number  of  the  whole  opera.  How  charming  is  the 
melody  of  the  cavatina  'Grace  pour  toil'  All  the  women 
present  understood  it  well;  each  saw  herself  seized  and 
snatched  away  on  the  stage.  That  part  alone  would  suffice  to 
make  the  fortune  of  the  opera.  Every  woman  felt  herself  en~ 
gaged  in  a  struggle  with  some  violent  lover.  Never  was  mu- 
sic so  passionate  and  so  dramatic. 


GAMBABA  388 

"The  whole  world  now  rises  in  arms  against  the  reprobate. 
This  finale  may  be  criticised  for  its  resemblance  to  that  of 
Don  Oiovanni;  but  there  is  this  immense  difference:  in  Isa- 
bella we  have  the  expression  of  the  noblest  faith,  a  true 
love  that  will  save  Robert,  for  he  scornfully  rejects  the  in- 
fernal powers  bestowed  on  him,  while  Don  Giovanni  persists 
in  his  unbelief.  Moreover,  that  particular  fault  is  common 
to  every  composer  who  has  written  a  finale  since  Mozart. 
The  finale  to  Don  Oiovanni  is  one  of  those  classic  forms  that 
are  invented  once  for  all. 

"At  last  religion  wins  the  day,  uplifting  the  voice  that 
governs  worlds,  that  invites  all  sorrow  to  come  for  consola- 
tion, all  repentance  to  be  forgiven  and  helped. 

"The  whole  house  was  stirred  by  the  chorus: 

' '  Malheureux  ou  coupables, 
Hatez-vous  d'accourir! 

"In  the  terrific  tumult  of  raving  passions,  the  holy  Voice 
would  have  been  unheard;  but  at  this  critical  moment  it 
sounds  like  thunder;  the  divine  Catholic  Church  rises  glo- 
rious in  light.  And  here  I  was  amazed  to  find  that  after 
such  lavish  use  of  harmonic  treasure,  the  composer  had  come 
upon  a  new  vein  with  the  splendid  chorus:  'Qloire  a  la 
Providence'  in  the  manner  of  Handel. 

"Robert  rushes  on  with  his  heartrending  cry :  'Si  je  pouvais 
prierT  and  Bertram,  driven  by  the  infernal  decree,  pursues 
his  son,  and  makes  a  last  effort.  Alice  has  called  up  the 
vision  of  the  Mother,  and  now  comes  the  grand  trio  to  which 
the  whole  opera  has  led  up:  the  triumph  of  the  soul  over 
matter,  of  the  Spirit  of  Good  over  the  Spirit  of  Evil.  The 
strains  of  piety  prevail  over  the  chorus  of  hell,  and  happiness 
appears  glorious;  but  here  the  music  is  weaker.  I  only  saw 
a  cathedral  instead  of  hearing  a  concert  of  angels  in  bliss, 
and  a  divine  prayer  consecrating  the  union  of  Robert  and  Isa- 
bella. We  ought  not  to  have  been  left  oppressed  by  the 
spells  of  hell ;  we  ought  to  emerge  with  hope  in  our  heart. 

"I,  as  musician  and  a  Catholic,  wanted  another  prayer  like 


384  GAMBARA 

that  in  Mose.  I  should  have  liked  to  see  how  Germany  would 
contend  with  Italy,  what  Meyerbeer  could  do  in  rivalry  with 
Kossini. 

"However,  in  spite  of  this  trifling  blemish,  the  writer  can- 
not say  that  after  five  hours  of  such  solid  music,  a  Parisian 
prefers  a  bit  of  ribbon  to  a  musical  masterpiece.  You  heard 
how  the  work  was  applauded;  it  will  go  through  five  hun- 
dred performances!  If  the  French  really  understand  that 
music " 

"It  is  because  it  expresses  ideas,"  the  Count  put  in. 

"No ;  it  is  because  it  sets  forth  in  a  definite  shape  a  picture 
of  the  struggle  in  which  so  many  perish,  and  because  every 
individual  life  is  implicated  in  it  through  memory.  Ah ! 
I,  hapless  wretch,  should  have  been  too  happy  to  hear  the 
sound  of  those  heavenly  voices  I  have  so  often  dreamed  of." 

Hereupon  Gambara  fell  into  a  musical  day-dream,  im- 
provising the  most  lovely  melodious  and  harmonious  cava- 
tina  that  Andrea  would  ever  hear  on  earth ;  a  divine  strain 
divinely  performed  on  a  theme  as  exquisite  as  that  of  0  filii 
et  f,U(B,  but  graced  with  additions  such  as  none  but  the  loftiest 
musical  genius  could  devise. 

The  Count  sat  lost  in  keen  admiration;  the  clouds  cleared 
away,  the  blue  sky  opened,  figures  of  angels  appeared  lifting 
the  veil  that  hid  the  sanctuary,  and  the  light  of  heaven 
poured  down. 

There  was  a  sudden  silence. 

The  Count,  surprised  at  the  cessation  of  the  music,  looked 
at  Gambara,  who,  with  fixed  gaze,  in  the  attitude  of  a  vision- 
ary, murmured  the  word :  "God !" 

Andrea  waited  till  the  composer  had  descended  from  the 
enchanted  realm  to  which  he  had  soared  on  the  many-hued 
wings  of  inspiration,  intending  to  show  him  the  truth  by 
the  light  he  himself  would  bring  do^\Ti  with  him. 

"Well,"  said  he,  pouring  him  out  another  bumper  of  wine 
and  clinking  glasses  with  him,  "this  German  has,  you  see, 
written  a  sublime  opera  without  troubling  himself  with 
theories,  while  those  musicians  who  write  grammars  of 
harmony  may,  like  literary  critics,  be  atrocious  composers." 


GAMBARA  886 

"Then  you  do  not  like  my  music  ?" 

"I  do  not  say  so.  But  if,  instead  of  carrying  musical 
principles  to  an  extreme — which  takes  you  too  far — ^you 
would  simply  try  to  arouse  our  feelings,  you  would  be  better 
understood,  unless  indeed  you  have  mistaken  your  vocation. 
You  are  a  great  poet." 

"What,"  cried  Gambara,  "are  twenty-five  years  of  stud}' 
all  in  vain?  Am  I  to  learn  the  imperfect  language  of  men 
when  I  have  the  key  to  the  heavenly  tongue?  Oh,  if  you 
are  right, — I  should  die." 

"No,  no.  You  are  great  and  strong;  you  would  begin  life 
again,  and  I  would  support  you.  We  would  show  the  world 
the  noble  and  rare  alliance  of  a  rich  man  and  an  artist  in 
perfect  sympathy  and  understanding." 

"Do  you  mean  it?"  asked  Gambara,  struck  with  amaze- 
ment. 

"As  I  have  told  you,  you  are  a  poet  more  than  a  musician." 

"A  poet,  a  poet!  It  is  better  than  nothing.  But  tell 
me  truly,  which  do  you  esteem  most  highly,  Mozart  or 
Homer?" 

"I  admire  them  equally." 

"On  your  honor?" 

"On  my  honor." 

"H'm!  Once  more.  What  do  you  think  of  Meyerbeer 
and  Byron?" 

"You  have  measured  them  by  naming  them  together." 

The  Count's  carriage  was  in  waiting.  The  composer  and 
his  noble  physician  ran  down-stairs,  and  in  a  few  minutes 
they  were  with  Marianna. 

As  they  went  in,  Gambara  threw  himself  into  his  wife's 
arms,  but  she  drew  back  a  step  and  turned  away  her  head; 

t'+he  husband  also  drew  back  and  beamed  on  the  Count. 
"Oh,  monsieur !"  said  Gambara  in  a  husky  voice,  "you 
ight  have  left  me  my  illusions."     He  hung  his  head,  and 
then  fell. 

"What  have  you  done  to  him  ?    He  is  dead  drunk !"  cried 


886  6AMBABA 

Marianna,  looking  down  at  her  husband  with  a  mingled  ex- 
pression of  pity  and  disgust. 

The  Count,  with  the  help  of  his  servant,  picked  up  Gam- 
bara  and  laid  him  on  his  bed. 

Then  Andrea  left,  his  heart  exultant  with  horrible  glad- 
ness. 

The  Count  let  the  usual  hour  for  calling  slip  past  next 
day,  for  he  began  to  fear  lest  he  had  duped  himself  and  had 
made  this  humble  couple  pay  too  dear  for  their  improved 
circumstances  and  added  wisdom,  since  their  peace  was  de- 
stroyed for  ever. 

At  last  Giardini  came  to  him  with  a  note  from  Marianna. 

"Come,"  she  wrote,  "the  mischief  is  not  so  great  as  you  so 
cruelly  meant  it  to  be." 

"Excellenza,"  said  the  cook,  while  Andrea  was  making 
ready,  "you  treated  us  splendidly  last  evening.  But  apart 
from  the  wine,  which  was  excellent,  your  steward  did  not 
put  anything  on  the  table  that  was  worthy  to  set  before  a 
true  epicure.  You  will  not  deny,  I  suppose,  that  the  dish  I 
sent  up  to  you  on  the  day  when  you  did  me  the  honor  to  sit 
down  at  my  board,  contained  the  quintessence  of  all  those 
that  disgraced  your  magnificent  service  of  plate  ?  And  when 
I  awoke  this  morning  I  remembered  the  promise  you  once 
made  me  of  a  place  as  chef.  Henceforth  I  consider  myself 
as  a  member  of  your  household." 

"I  thought  of  the  same  thing  a  few  days  ago,"  replied 
Andrea,  "I  mentioned  you  to  the  secretary  of  the  Austrian 
Embassy,  and  you  have  permission  to  recross  the  Alps  as 
soon  as  you  please,  I  have  a  castle  in  Croatia  which  I  rarely 
visit.  There  you  may  combine  the  offices  of  gate-keeper, 
butler,  and  steward,  with  two  hundred  crowns  a  year.  Your, 
wife  will  have  as  much  for  doing  all  the  rest  of  the  work. 
You  may  make  all  the  experiments  you  please  in  anima  vili, 
that  is  to  say  on  the  stomach  of  my  vassals.  Here  is  a  cheque 
for  your  traveling  expenses." 

Giardini  kissed  the  Count's  hand  after  the  Neapolitan 
fashion. 


GAMBARA  387 

"Excellenza,"  said  he,  "I  accept  the  cheque,  but  beg  to 
decline  the  place.  It  would  dishonor  me  to  give  up  my  art 
by  losing  the  opinion  of  the  most  perfect  epicures,  who  are 
certainly  to  be  found  in  Paris." 

When  Andrea  arrived  at  Gambara's  lodgings,  the  musi- 
cian rose  to  welcome  him. 

"My  generous  friend,"  said  he,  with  the  utmost  frank- 
ness, "you  either  took  advantage,  last  evening,  of  the  weak- 
ness of  my  brain  to  make  a  fool  of  me,  or  else  your  brain 
is  no  more  capable  of  standing  the  test  of  the  heady  liquors 
of  our  native  Latium,  than  mine  is.  I  will  assume  this  latter 
hypothesis;  I  would  rather  doubt  your  digestion  than  your 
heart.  Be  this  as  it  may,  henceforth  I  drink  no  more  wine 
— for  ever.  The  abuse  of  good  liquor  last  evening  led  me 
into   much  guilty   folly.     When   I   remember   that   I   very 

nearly "    He  gave  a  glance  of  terror  at  Marianna.     "As 

to  the  wretched  opera  you  took  me  to  hear,  I  have  thought 
it  over,  and  it  is,  after  all,  music  written  on  ordinary  lines, 
a  mountain  of  piled-up  notes,  verha  et  voces.  It  is  but  the 
dregs  of  the  nectar  I  can  drink  in  deep  draughts  as  I  repro- 
duce the  heavenly  music  that  I  hear !  It  is  a  patchwork 
of  airs  of  which  I  could  trace  the  origin.  The  passage, 
'Gloire  a  la  Providence'  is  too  much  like  a  bit  of  Handel; 
the  chorus  of  knights  is  closely  related  to  the  Scotch  air  in 
La  Dame  Blanche;  in  short,  if  this  opera  is  a  success,  it  is 
because  the  music  is  borrowed  from  everybody's — so  it  ought 
to  be  popular. 

"I  will  say  good-bye  to  you,  my  dear  friend.  I  have  had 
some  ideas  seething  in  my  brain  since  the  morning  that  only 
wait  to  soar  up  to  God  on  the  wings  of  song,  but  I  wished  to 
see  you.  Good-bye;  I  must  ask  forgiveness  of  the  Muse. 
We  shall  meet  at  dinner  to-night — but  no  wine ;  at  any  rate^ 
none  for  me.     I  am  firmly  resolved " 

"I  give  him  up !"  cried  Andrea,  flushing  red. 

"And  you  restore  my  sense  of  conscience,"  said  Marianna. 
"I  dared  not  appeal  to  it !  My  friend,  my  friend,  it  is  no 
fault  of  ours;  he  does  not  want  to  be  cured.'* 


888  CAMBARA 

Six  years  after  this,  in  January  1837,  such  artists  as 
were  so  unlucky  as  to  damage  their  wind  or  stringed  instru- 
ments, generally  took  them  to  the  Eue  Froid-Manteau,  to  a 
squalid  and  horrible  house,  where,  on  the  fifth  floor,  dwelt  an 
old  Italian  named  Gambara. 

For  five  years  past  he  had  been  left  to  himself,  deserted  by 
his  wife;  he  had  gone  through  many  misfortunes.  An  in- 
strument on  Miiich  he  had  relied  to  make  his  fortune,  and 
which  he  called  a  Panliarmonicon,  had  been  sold  by  order 
of  the  Court  on  the  public  square.  Place  du  Chatelet,  together 
with  a  cartload  of  music  paper  scrawled  with  notes.  The 
day  after  the  sale,  these  scores  had  served  in  the  market 
to  wrap  up  butter,  fish,  and  fruit. 

Thus  the  three  grand  operas  of  which  the  poor  man  would 
boast,  but  which  an  old  Neapolitan  cook,  who  was  now  but 
a  patcher  up  of  broken  meats,  declared  to  be  a  heap  of  non- 
sense, were  scattered  throughout  Paris  on  the  trucks  of  coster- 
mongers.  But  at  any  rate,  the  landlord  had  got  his  rent  and 
the  bailiffs  their  expenses. 

According  to  the  ISTeapolitan  cook — who  warmed  up  for 
the  street-walkers  of  the  Eue  Froid-Manteau  the  fragments 
left  from  the  most  sumptuous  dinners  in  Paris — Signora 
Gambara  had  gone  off  to  Italy  with  a  Milanese  nobleman, 
and  no  one  knew  what  had  become  of  her.  Worn  out  with 
fifteen  years  of  misery,  she  was  very  likely  ruining  the  Count 
by  her  extravagant  luxury,  for  they  were  so  devotedly  ador- 
ing that,  in  all  his  life,  Giardini  could  recall  no  instance  of 
such  a  passion. 

Towards  the  end  of  that  very  January,  one  evening  when 
Giardini  was  chatting  with  a  girl  who  had  come  to  buy  her 
supper,  about  the  divine  Marianna — so  poor,  so  beautiful, 
so  heroically  devoted,  and  who  had,  nevertheless,  "gone  the 
way  of  them  all,"  the  cook,  his  wife,  and  the  street-girl  saw 
coming  towards  them  a  woman  fearfully  thin,  with  a  sun- 
burned, dusty  face;  a  nervous  walking  skeleton,  looking  at 
the  numbers,  and  trying  to  recognize  a  house. 

"Ecco  la  Marianna!"  exclaimed  the  cook. 


GAMBARA  389 

Marianna  recognized  Giardini,  the  erewhile  cook,  in  the 
poor  fellow  she  saw,  without  wondering  by  what  series  of 
disasters  he  had  sunk  to  keep  a  miserable  shop  for  second- 
hand food.  She  went  in  and  sat  down,  for  she  had  come 
from  Fontainebleau.  She  had  walked  fourteen  leagues  that 
day,  after  begging  her  bread  from  Turin  to  Paris. 

She  frightened  that  terrible  trio !  Of  all  her  wondrous 
beauty  nothing  remained  but  her  fine  eyes,  dimmed  and 
sunken.     The  only  thing  faithful  to  her  was  misfortune. 

She  was  welcomed  by  the  skilled  old  instrument  mender, 
who  greeted  her  with  unspeakable  joy. 

'^hy,  here  you  are,  my  poor  ]\Tarianna !"  said  he,  warmly. 
"During  your  absence  they  sold  up  my  instrument  and  my 
operas." 

It  would  have  been  difficult  to  kill  the  fatted  calf  for  the 
return  of  the  Samaritan,  but  Giardini  contributed  the  fag 
end  of  a  salmon,  the  trull  paid  for  wine,  Gambara 
produced  some  bread,  Signora  Giardini  lent  a  cloth,  and  the 
unfortunates  all  supped  together  in  the  musician's  garret. 

When  questioned  as  to  her  adventures,  Marianna  would 
make  no  reply;  she  only  raised  her  beautiful  eyes  to  heaven 
and  whispered  to  Giardini: 

"He  married  a  dancer!" 

"And  how  do  you  mean  to  live?"  said  the  girl.  "The 
journey  has  ruined  you,  and " 

"And  made  me  an  old  woman,"  said  Marianna.  "No, 
that  is  not  the  result  of  fatigue  or  hardship,  but  of  grief." 

"And  why  did  you  never  send  your  man  here  any  money?" 
asked  the  girl. 

Marianna's  only  answer  was  a  look,  but  it  went  to  the  wo- 
man's heart. 

"She  is  proud  with  a  vengeance !"  she  exclaimed.  "And 
much  good  it  has  done  her !"  she  added,  in  Giardini's  ear. 

All  that  year  musicians  took  especial  care  of  their  instru- 
ments, and  repairs  did  not  bring  in  enough  to  enable  the 
poor  couple  to  pay  their  way;  the  wife,  too,  did  not  earn 
much  by  her  needle,  and  they  were  compelled  to  turn  their 


390  GAMBARA 

talents  to  account  in  the  lowest  form  of  employment.  They 
would  go  out  together  in  the  dark  to  the  Champs  Elysees 
and  sing  duets,  which  Gambara,  poor  fellow,  accompanied 
on  a  wretched  guitar.  On  the  way,  Marianna,  who  on  these 
expeditions  covered  her  head  with  a  sort  of  veil  of  coarse 
muslin,  would  take  her  husband  to  a  grocer's  shop  in  the 
Faubourg  Saint-Honore  and  give  him  two  or  three  thimble- 
fuls  of  brandy  to  make  him  tipsy;  otherwise  he  could  not 
play.  Then  they  would  stand  up  together  in  front  of  the 
smart  people  sitting  on  the  chairs,  and  one  of  the  greatest 
geniuses  of  the  time,  the  unrecognized  Orpheus  of  Modem 
Music,  would  perform  passages  from  his  operas — ^pieces  so 
remarkable  that  they  could  extract  a  few  half-pence  from 
Parisian  supineness.  When  some  dilettante  of  comic  operas 
happened  to  be  sitting  there  and  did  not  recognize  from  what 
work  they  were  taken,  he  would  question  the  woman  dressed 
like  a  Greek  priestess,  who  held  out  a  bottle-stand  of  stamped 
metal  in  which  she  collected  charity. 

"I  say,  my  dear,  what  is  that  music  out  of?" 

"The  opera  of  Mahomet"  Marianna  would  reply. 

As  Eossini  composed  an  opera  called  Mahomet  II.,  the 
amateur  would  say  to  his  wife,  sitting  at  his  side: 

''What  a  pity  it  is  that  they  will  never  give  us  at  the 
Italiens  any  operas  by  Eossini  but  those  we  know.  That  is 
really  very  fine  music !" 

And  Gambara  would  smile. 

Only  a  few  days  since,  this  unhappy  couple  had  to  pay 
the  trifling  sum  of  thirty-six  francs  as  arrears  of  rent  for 
the  cock-loft  in  which  they  lived  resigned.  The  grocer  would 
not  give  them  credit  for  the  brandy  with  which  Marianna 
plied  her  husband  to  enable  him  to  play.  Gambara  was^ 
consequently,  so  unendurably  bad  that  the  ears  of  th» 
wealthy  were  irresponsive,  and  the  tin  bottle-stand  remained 
empty. 

It  was  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening.  A  handsome  Italian, 
the  Principessa  Massimilla  Di  Varese,  took  pity  on  the  poor 


GAMBARA  391 

creatures;  she  gave  them  forty  francs  and  questioned  them, 
discerning  from  the  woman's  thanks  that  she  was  a  Venetian. 
Prince  Emilio  would  know  the  history  of  their  woes,  and 
Marianna  told  it,  making  no  complaints  of  God  or  men. 

"Madame,"  said  Gambara,  as  she  ended,  for  he  was  sober, 
"we  are  the  victims  of  our  own  superiority.  My  music  is 
good.  But  as  soon  as  music  transcends  feeling  and  becomes 
an  idea,  only  persons  of  genius  should  be  the' hearers,  for  they 
alone  are  capable  of  responding  to  it !  It  is  my  misfortune 
that  I  have  heard  the  chorus  of  angels,  and  believed  that  men 
could  understand  those  strains.  The  same  thing  happens  to 
women  when  their  love  assumes  a  divine  aspect:  men  cannot 
understand  them." 

This  speech  was  well  worth  the  forty  francs  bestowed  by 
Massimilla;  she  took  out  a  second  gold  piece,  and  told  Mari- 
anna she  would  write  to  Andrea  Marcosini. 

"Do  not  write  to  him,  madame !"  exclaimed  Marianna. 
"And  God  grant  you  to  be  always  beautiful !" 

"Let  us  provide  for  them,"  said  the  Princess  to  her  hus- 
band ;  "for  this  man  has  remained  faithful  to  the  Ideal  which 
we  have  killed." 

As  he  saw  the  gold  pieces,  Gambara  shed  tears;  and  then 
a  vague  reminiscence  of  old  scientific  experiments  crossed 
his  mind,  and  the  hapless  composer,  as  he  wiped  his  eyes, 
spoke  these  words,  which  the  circumstances  made  pathetic: 

"Water  is  a  product  of  burning." 

Pabis,  Jxme  ISN. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANGELES 

COLLEGE  LIBRARY 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


Oct  5  6  4 


APR  2    1973 

1  2  DEC  1980  14  DA^' 


Book  Slip-25m-9,'60(32<936s4)4280 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A    001  136  586     3 


UCLA-College  Library 

PQ  2173  S96E5b  1901 


College 
Library 


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S96e^ 
1901 


L  005  656  398  4 


'  ,1",!  i|! 


1  'i 


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